


No Light Above

by scarletrebel



Category: Destiny (Video Game), Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: (they respawn), Gen, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-04-15 10:58:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4604178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarletrebel/pseuds/scarletrebel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Legends are so rarely forged in the ashes of hard fought victories. Fireteam AH may have taken on the Vault of Glass and won, but it was not without it’s consequences. </p><p>Now, as a guest to the Tower forewarns the return of the Hive God Crota, the bonds of this Fireteam will be tested. </p><p>And one Warlock's destiny will not lie in victory, but rather, in the hands of the enemy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Predawne

**Author's Note:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.
> 
> (Chapters 1 to 8 are direct uploads from tumblr, so they'll all be going up at the same time. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be formatting the tumblr posts from then on - what with authors notes and such - so you'll just have to bear with me whilst I figure that out.)

The ship flew just below the clouds, low enough to reach its destination, and yet high enough to keep it out of trouble. Proximity to the last remaining city was, unfortunately, not a guarantee of safety, regardless of The Travelers presence. It dipped lower as it approached its destination. The Tower practically shined in the late afternoon glow, oranges and yellows bounced off of the great steel building as the ship dropped off its passenger, and glided along towards the hangar.

In a flurry of particles, Gavin materialised on the balcony, and remarked at how silent the home of the Guardians seemed tonight. The Awoken took a moment but then hurried along, as his squad worried about him for good but no less annoying reason. 

After placing some weapon parts from a hand cannon he no longer used along with some spinmetal he had collected on his patrol of the Cosmodrome inside a vault, he took a determined stride towards the Hall of Guardians but then stopped, as he spotted Ray perched on the balcony above the north entrance of the Tower. The Exo seemed concentrated on something below him, but Gavin didn’t bother to look as he changed his course swiftly to head towards his team mate. 

He took the stairs two at a time in his reassigned hurry. Ray remained slouched against the railing as he approached, facing the last remaining city of Earth, but greeted Gavin warmly. 

“How’s mother Russia?”

“Boring, as ever,” Gavin scoffed. “Here,” he presented a single piece of sapphire wire to Ray, which pulled his fellow Hunters attention away from whatever he had been focused on below him. 

“Is it my birthday?” the sarcasm in Rays voice could be heard even over the gentle whir of his robotic movements as he took the offering from Gavin. “I hope not, cause this is a pretty shitty gift.” 

"Oi! It’s leftover from some gear I found earlier, you want it or not?"

"Oh fuck, it’s a leftover? In that case," Ray pocketed the material and went back to staring over the balcony.

"You pleb," Gavin swung on the railing, placing his stomach on the bar and letting his feet lift off the floor. "What we staring at?"

"Ryan. He’s talking to that Eris chick again." 

“Again?” Gavin said, forgetting briefly that gravity existed and nearly falling forwards. His body flailed but remained suspended. 

“Dude, if you fucking fall off and blow our cover I’ll wait for your Ghost to bring you back and then just kill you again.” Ray scolded.

“Wot? We’re not supposed to be watching?”

“We’re not supposed to be listening.”

“Why not?” 

Ray paused, Gavin placed his feet back on the floor and watched the Exo, frustrated at his lack of an immediate answer. 

“Michael and Geoff are worried.” 

“About Ryan? What, why?” 

Gavin, if he was being honest, didn’t know much about the Warlock. He was the kind of Guardian who studied Hive runes each and every time he patrolled the moon, collected Fallen house banners and presented them to Master Rahool, listening intently to the information given once the Cryptarch recognised the sigil where other Guardians took their glimmer reward and promptly went about their business. But despite his quiet demeanor, Ryan could (and had) singlehandedly march his way into any Fallen house just to extract information, taking out any Vandal and Dreg that were stupid enough to get in his way.

Gavin thought briefly back to the Vault of Glass. Remembered how Ryan had been the one who looked extensively into the Vault after himself and Michael managed to secure and revive an archive from the Golden Age. He was the one who urged them into the Vault to take on the Vex who were planning on turning Venus into another machine, and rather than celebrate when they defeated Atheon after the grueling mission, disappeared with his Ghost to take environmental scans.

Gavin liked remembering the end of that whole ordeal, more than anything. 

“They don’t like how much he’s been talking to her,” Ray continued. “They think she’s…”

“Crazy? Like what Commander Zavala said?” 

It was no secret how the Titan Mentor felt about their new guest. Come to think of it, Gavin had only ever seen Ikora Rey, the Warlock Mentor talk to her. 

“I was going to say paranoid, but yeah. Crazy will suffice,” Ray paused again. “Basically, they think it’s rubbing off on him.”

Gavin finally looked down to where Ryan was talking with the towers newest guest, Eris Morn. She was known also as Crota’s Bane, the one Guardian who survived an ill-fated attempt on the Hive gods’ life. Her squad went into the Hellmouth chasing revenge for the war and death Crota and his Hive armies had brought to the Moon. 

Gavin wondered if she had given herself that name, and supposed she deserved it after spending so many cycles hiding in the shadows of the Hellmouth, or so the story went. Or so Ryan had said. 

“So, what? You wanna hear just how crazy she is? You could just talk to her yourself idiot.” 

“I have,” Ray sighed. “And hearing the things she says, the things she asks Guardians to do, it doesn’t exactly make me feel any better.” 

Gavin trusted the things that Ryan told him; had seen him pour over enough books to trust his judgement. He didn’t know how much he believed the three eyed woman whose sanity was questionable to say the least. Her skin was grey as stone, her fingers like gnarled twigs as she protected and coveted over a green orb thingy, which looked like it had some sort of shard in it. Gavin had no idea exactly what it was she kept so close to her, as he himself had given her a wide berth. 

She had showed up to the tower a week ago, tied up her ship and ushered a warning to any Guardian who listened. No heads-up, nothing. She looked battle-worn, but it didn’t make her reception any friendlier. 

“I just needed to hear what she says to Ryan, the kind of conversations they have. I just have to be sure-” 

“That she’s not yanking his fucking chain and sending us all to our untimely deaths.” 

For a Titan, Michael was surprisingly swift. Gavin wouldn’t go so far as to say quiet, he had had enough rage induced, where-the-fuck-is-my-machine-gun-ammo screaming sessions blasted into his headset during the heat of battle, but a swift Titan was one you didn’t mess with. Gavin hauled his best friend into a hug as Ray pulled his gaze away from Ryan finally. 

“You manage to get that Centurion prick on Mars?” Michael asked Ray once Gavin disconnected from him. Ray nodded.

“He was hiding beneath the buried city; surprised the Vex didn’t find him and his crew first, ‘cause they sure as hell found me.” They spoke about that for a while, if Ray had any other trouble on Mars and what kind of Vex he bumped into. Nothing of a Major or Ultra class, thankfully, but no less annoying considering how long it had taken him to find the Cabal Centurion. Michael agreed and told Ray and Gavin about the Hydra he had found camping out by the now abandoned Vault of Glass on Venus. It was ‘embarrassingly’ easy to take down, but his Ghost couldn’t find any other information on it, nothing to explain why it was there. 

They fell into a comfortable silence, until Michael said; “So, Ryan?”

“Talking to her again,” Ray said.

“God damn,” Michael muttered. Gavin asked why it had become such a big deal (seemingly in the last day or so, no one told him anything) to which Michael replied with a frustrated edge to his voice; “She’s pushing this, ‘Crota’s returning’ crap onto him when all she has to show for it is a lack of a fucking face.”

Gavin grimaced at the thought of her hearing that, given their proximity and Michael’s natural range. “Hive have been showing up on Earth a lot more,” he argued. “Cayde said they’re really beginning to match the Fallen when it comes to numbers, and apparently Knights have been leading Acolytes into Fallen-controlled areas. The Mothyards, the Terrestrial Complex in the Skywatch-”

“What’s your fucking point Gavin?”

“Hive activity does match her claims,” Ray added, to which Gavin held in a complaint. “There could be something to it.” 

Michael sighed, obvious and displeased. Ray went on to mention he had overhead the Hunter Mentor talking to his Ghost about the Hive’s movements. Cayde-6 still wasn’t sure if it made Eris’s claims any more valid, but there was no doubt that something had the Hive riled up.

Michael’s brows only furrowed. “I don’t buy it, none of the Vanguard Mentors do, and Geoff doesn’t.”

“So what’s your point then?” Gavin countered. He didn’t get an answer though, as his Ghost materialised before him.

“Sorry to interrupt, Gavin. Ryan’s asking for you.”

The phrase ‘speak of the devil’ came to mind. Gavin asked why it couldn’t wait, as their six team squad always met at the end of a day’s work, an unspoken agreement between them all.

“It’s urgent,” the little light explained. “A possible 3-man mission, to be executed as soon as possible.”

“Right, okay then. Where is he at?”

“The Travelers Walk.” His Ghost disappeared, but then reappeared tentatively. “Oh and – these are his words, not mine – seeing as Michael and Ray-42 are already with you, he says you may as well bring them along.”

The three lads shared a look. “You guys suck at being stealthy,” Ray shrugged.

Gavin’s Ghost swiveled towards Michael. “And, um – again, Ryan’s words, not mine – He asks if you can do that in a quiet manner. If you’re at all… Capable of that.”

The Ghost vanished, in the same way one would get out of the way of a grenade being thrown at their feet. Michael bristled. He stared down at Eris Morn, now alone and holding the green glowing orb thing to her chest, as though he was hoping it would explode and take the rest of her face with it. He started walking, and Ray and Gavin followed.


	2. Time and Patience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'When Ryan became a Guardian he was perfectly fine with sticking to his books and his research. As a result this had made him the team’s unofficial history guy, but as of late no one seemed to want to listen to anything he had to say. It was becoming more and more apparent and the ice was beginning to break.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.
> 
> (Chapters 1 to 8 are direct uploads from tumblr, so they'll all be going up at the same time. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be formatting the tumblr posts from then on - what with authors notes and such - so you'll just have to bear with me whilst I figure that out.)

“No. No fucking way.”

“Michael-”

“There’s no point Ryan! We’d be wasting our time.”

Ryan wished Michael knew how to control the range of his voice. In the time it had taken the younger members of his squad to get to him, to explain the quest he needed help with, and promptly be told he was insane, the lavish courtyard that hosted guests to the Tower had begun to fill up.

The Iron Banner had made a triumphant return, challenging Guardians in their own brand of the Crucible and opening the normally secluded Travelers Walk up to everyone. However, other Guardians who sought Lord Saladins mentorship were instead looking at them inquisitively. Most of them were Hunters -- a class which, in Ryan’s opinion, didn’t know when to keep themselves out of other people’s business at the best of times. He spoke in a hushed voice.

“It’s a section of the Refinery Guardians have barely even looked into, we’ve scanned the entrances a dozen times over and all we know is that it’s a tunnel that stretches all the way from the Rocketyard to the Forgotten Shore, it’s the perfect place for a Hive breeding ground, or worse!”

“What’s worse than a Hive breeding ground?” Gavin wondered aloud.

“One of the Swarm Princes of a god who hasn’t been seen in centuries, apparently,” Michael quipped humourlessly, to which Ryan corrected him.

“He’s not a Swarm Prince, Michael, he’s nothing like what we’ve seen on the Moon. I’m telling you, he’s even more deadly.”

“So what’s worse than a breeding ground _and_ a Swarm Prince then?” Gavin again asked, and Ryan could feel his blood pressure rising.

“He’s known as the  _Fist of Crota_ , he’s basically a general, and as the name implies, he could be Crota’s right hand man-”

“Or left hand man, don’t discriminate.” Ray added, which made Michael and Gavin laugh obnoxiously. Ryan wondered briefly if Exo’s had an off button.

The Hunters apologetic shrug did nothing to calm his steadily growing anger. They had wasted enough time already, going around in circles and asking him the most inane questions, all of which had the same answer: we can find out if we stop jerking each other off and go look.

Unfortunately, that penultimate response to their question time was what had earned Ryan Michaels rage.

“What _exactly_ is it about all of this that seems just so unbelievable to you?” he asked, exasperated. When Ryan became a Guardian he was perfectly fine with sticking to his books and his research. As a result this had made him the team’s unofficial history guy, but as of late no one seemed to want to listen to anything he had to say. It was becoming more and more apparent and the ice was beginning to break. “With the things that we’ve seen, the challenges we’ve faced?” he pushed.

“Okay, first of all, we knew Atheon was down there before we even started thinking about taking the bastard out,” Michael explained, practically yelling. “Ryan, you fucking spent weeks taking readings on Venus and Mars, studying the Vex timegates, you said we needed to know what we were up against! And now some bitch lands in the tower and you just go and lose your fucking mind?”

Gavin was the one to let them all know that Jack and Geoff were approaching. It wasn’t as excitable of an announcement as it normally was, and that was reflected in the lack of greetings once the last two members of their squad finished their brisk walk towards them.

“Alright, what are we fighting about now?” Geoff spoke first, testing the waters.

“Ryan thinks there’s something up in the Refinery, in the Cosmodrome.” Gavin answered, and Ryan cut in to spare himself another grilling from Michael.

“I know there is, Geoff, I’m certain. There’s a Knight down there, the Fist of Crota, he’s powerful and he’s trying to create an army of Hive on Earth.”

“Says who?” Their squad leader replied, to which Ryan exploded.

“Says me, who gives a fuck! It has never taken this long for me to convince you guys to go and kill something before, why do evidence and facts and truth matter all of a sudden?”

“Because if we’re going to go off of some crazy lady’s word, personally I want to see at least some small shred of evidence that it’s going to be worth it!” proclaimed Michael, and it was like Ryan had received a final piece of the puzzle that had emerged ever since Eris first captured his attention.

“Just her word?” he said quietly. “She lost her whole team down there, and you think she’s lying to us?”

“Ryan,” Jack interjected, trying subtly to place himself between the Warlock and the Titan. “I’m sorry but, she’s obviously not all there. We have to entertain the possibility that what she’s saying isn’t true, or maybe, just… Embellished.”

Ryan pulled his attention away from Michael which urged Jack on further. “I don’t think anyone doubts that she’s been through some shit, but is it worth wasting our time? With the Cabal creating bigger defences in Rubicon, or the Fallen gearing up for another raid on the Prison of Elders?”

“The Hive are preparing Earth for Crota’s return, and we’re not going to be able to stop him if he comes back this time.”

The fact that Eris had urged him personally to take on this task wasn’t what was pushing him to see it through. He believed her story, believed in the horrors she had seen whilst trapped and hiding in the Hellmouth. He didn’t know how much she spoke of her squad to the other Guardians who helped her, felt disgusted when some of them merely asked her for help with a weapons upgrade and then sauntered off.

But he knew of Toland the Shattered, of Veil and Omar, Eriana-3 and Sai. How they fought hard to cripple Crota’s army and lost so much in the process. He saw beneath the black stained rag that covered her eyes the pain it had caused her to lose them all, and then to watch those enemies who had taken everything from her rise from the darkness once again to try and wake their master.

Ryan wasn’t an idiot. He could tell when people were watching him, could tell who they were talking about when he entered a room and the conversation died. But he believed her, and not as blindly as apparently everyone thought.

“We’d know if that was what they were planning, you think the Vanguard would just let that shit happen again?”

Ryan liked Michael, got on with him most of the time, and admired his skills on the battlefield. But there were times like these where he felt like taking his precious machine gun and throwing it to the cliffs below to try and prove he wasn’t fucking around.

“You want proof?” Ryan towered over the Titan. He’d had enough. “Because I don’t just have her word, Michael, I have Hive invading areas of the Cosmodrome – WE have Hive pushing back the Fallen in places they’ve never even set foot in before, a Witch trying to seize control of the Blast, and an increase in Hive activity nobody seems to want to talk about because they’re much happier ignoring Eris!”

“Did you just say Witch?”

“Huh?”

A couple of seconds passed by before Ray reiterated. “You said Witch, Ryan. The Hive don’t have Witches, they have Wizards.”

Ryan considered holding his tongue but then figured he was all in at this point anyway, so what difference did it make. “I wasn’t going to mention it until I was sure, but, yeah, a Witch. Omnigul, Crota’s Will. Another general of his and she’s protecting something in the Cosmodrome, trying to get rid of the Fallen who occupy that area. Eris is certain she’s there, she faced her in the Hellmouth-”

Michael laughed dryly and asked if Ryan knew how ridiculous that sounded. He could see the Titans machine gun loosely strapped to his side and had to fight back temptation.

“Unnecessary gendering of floating space aliens aside, Michaels got a point Ryan. You said you weren’t sure, have you seen this Witch on Earth?” Jack asked, and Ryan faltered. He hadn’t been to the Cosmodrome lately, he confessed, to which Michael scoffed and he really needed to find some restraint because it would definitely make himself feel better to see that heavy weapon fall a thousand feet towards the ground-

“I’ve been in the Cosmodrome,” Gavin said. “And I might have heard something, I’m not sure though.”

Five pairs of eyes landed on Gavin at once.

“Recently?” Geoff asked, all too slow for Ryan’s liking. “You saw Hive at the Blast Gav?”

“Well, no, I heard…” The Awoken, for the first time since Ryan had known him, looked timid. “I was just patrolling through the Refinery today, and I heard a scream - more like a screech really, or maybe laughter - but yeah, it didn’t, I mean, Wizards don’t make a lot of noise but it didn’t sound - well, it sounded like something Hive, but it definitely came from the Blast.”

“Hive so close to the Devils Lair,” Jack said, looking at Geoff. “That’s bold of them.”

“Why didn’t you mention this earlier?” Ryan asked, but then cut Gavin off when he tried to explain away what he had heard as ‘maybe just a bunch of really loud Thralls’. He urged Geoff further. He needed a full Fireteam to search the Refinery with him and try and destroy the Fist of Crota. He was in there, and from what Gavin had said Omnigul was there too. Gavin’s description matched everything Eris had told him about her; she was a wicked and desperate Hive Witch (or Wizard, they had no time to argue labels) who was now  _on Earth_. This couldn’t be ignored any longer.

Geoff stayed silent, the whirring of his Exo machinery personifying the metaphorical wheels no doubt turning in his head. If Ryan could prove that two of Crota’s generals were on Earth, he could start getting his squad and the Vanguards attention. They could start wiping out his army once and for all. He could give her peace.

Geoff cursed. “He’s right guys; we need to at least check it out.”

Michael appeared to be all out of witty rebuttals as their leader reasoned with them. “There’s no doubt the Hive are stirring up shit in the Cosmodrome, and whether or not it’s part of some grand master plan as Ryan and Eris Morn think it is, or just them trying to push their boundaries against the Fallen, we need to look into it.”

“I’ll go with you,” Ray offered immediately, surprising Ryan but not affecting his gratitude.

“Gavin, you should go too,” Geoff said. “You heard the screams, and you’re the only one of us who’s been there recently, you should be able to tell if something’s off.”

Gavin protested, back to his old self and complaining that he didn’t want to go back to Old Russia again that it was boring and why can’t him or Jack go. Ryan was about to ask the same thing when Jack apologised for the both of them and said that Ikora wanted to see them as soon as possible. They were heading for the Hall of Guardians as soon as they landed in the Tower, but then they heard Michaels yelling and came to see what the problem was. Michael shuffled his feet.

The six of them parted ways once Gavin gave up and accepted his placement on Ryan’s team. Ray remained silent, and then the three of them asked their Ghosts to bring their ships around and take them to orbit.

Ryan supposed Ray thought, or maybe hoped he didn’t see the look he shot to Michael right before they were teleported, but the scepticism was easy to see even in two little optical lights. Where there might have been a small shred of doubt was replaced with a desire to be proven right.

The Hive were going to wake Crota. And Ryan was sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr - nerdy-kins.tumblr.com - for ah destiny au drabbles and other fake ah crew pieces that im still trying to decide whether or not I want to upload here. Stay tuned.


	3. Crota's Apprentice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whilst Ryan leads Ray and Gavin into the Cosmodrome to seek out the supposed Fist of Crota commanding the Hive on Earth, back at the Tower the Warlock Mentor Ikora Rey shares an important piece of information with Geoff and Jack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.
> 
> (Chapters 1 to 8 are direct uploads from tumblr, so they'll all be going up at the same time. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be formatting the tumblr posts from then on - what with authors notes and such - so you'll just have to bear with me whilst I figure that out.)

Geoff worried to the point where anyone who knew him found it pointless to tell him. They daren’t tell him to relax, of all things. This was something he appreciated when he knew there was no need to worry about his squad members, and yet his thoughts just fell out of his mouth. Whoever was responsible for his internal hardware must have fucked up somewhere between his brain and his mouth.

He was halfway through explaining to Jack the fact that he really did believe Ryan, and to an extent Eris Morn, but he just didn’t want Ryan to become so consumed by the idea of Crota returning -- when Ikora Rey finally finished a heated conversation she was having with Commander Zavala.

The Warlock Mentor waved Jack and Geoff over to her, clasped their hands in greeting whilst an aggravated Zavala tried to go back to his work, and walked them over to the far side of the room; away from the other mentors.

She had asked them how their patrol of the Moon went in the way of small talk, and they had told her worryingly that the Hive seem to have buffed up their security at each known entrance to the Hellmouth. The amount of Hallowed Knights had doubled and Thralls roamed outside of their usual confines of the Hellmouth. Acolytes stalked every crevice of every area, even managing to make the scavengers wary, as the Fallen had begun to recede from areas they normally inhabited.

Stopping in front of the huge bay windows, Ikora clasped her hands together and addressed the two Warlocks. Geoff couldn’t remember ever seeing her like this. Serious wasn’t the word, she was always serious. Nervous couldn’t be right either, but that remained to be seen.

“There can be no doubt that the Hive’s current activity is worrying. More and more Guardians are reporting abnormalities in the creature’s behaviour after patrolling The Ocean of Storms.”

“And no one knows why?”

Ikora smiled at Jack gravely. “We know why, we’re just unwilling to admit it. Not very becoming of us, Guardians of Earth, to be so scared of something we know in our hearts must be true.”

Ikora then asked if either of them had greeted Eris yet, to which they both sheepishly replied no. She asked them why and Geoff wondered if she wanted them to lie to her face. Neither of them spoke.

Geoff didn’t know how to explain that he had nothing against Eris before she had started making Ryan paranoid. After one too many brief arguments with his fellow Warlock in which he’d tried to advise him to spend some time away from her, he’d decided to steer clear of her out of spite.

Before the Golden Age, Geoff had read somewhere, the humans believed in a god who saw their every move and judged them accordingly. If Crota was the same, he imagined the bastard had a smug grin on his face from watching this train wreck of a conversation so far.

Ikora simply told them to not be afraid of Eris, that she may not look like it, but she had a lot of wisdom to offer them.

“Ryan appears to be getting on quite well with her, and I see him benefiting.”

“Benefiting?” Geoff knew he must have sounded incredulous, based on the frown Ikora gave him.

“You don’t believe so?”

“He worries,” Jack explained. “We’re all kind of worried.” Ikora asked why, and even when he was frustrated Jack still came across as calm.

“What the Hive are doing is undeniable, and honestly, it’s driving me crazy too just hearing everyone say that and refusing to admit at least _why_ that might be. But we don’t  _know_. We have no real cause to believe that it’s because they’re preparing for Crota’s return, all we have is Eris Morns word and she could very easily just be affected by the shadows of the Hellmouth.”

He paused, Ikora said nothing so he kept talking. “They could be trying to finally chase away the Fallen from the Moon, they could be focusing on making more abominations like Phogoth, they could be doing a lot of things. Her arrival was sudden and brash and she claims to be part of ‘The Hidden’ whatever that means. I feel sorry for her loss but, I don’t believe much of what she says.”

“But then there’s Ryan,” Geoff explained further, kind of annoyed that Jack didn’t immediately begin with this. “He believes everything she says. He goes to the Moon constantly, returns to the Tower, speaks to her for hours on end and then practically vanishes for the night. Aside from when we meet as a squad in the evenings, I’ve only seen him twice since she came here and I – We, Jack, me, Ray, his whole team are worried about him. We don’t want to see him fall to the same sickness she’s – well, she  _may be_  suffering from.”

Day had turned to night, and as if she had been waiting all this time for the cloak of nightfall to shield her words, Ikora lowered her voice and spoke quickly and clearly.

“What I am about to tell you now Guardians, is of the utmost secrecy, and must remain only between yourselves and your team. Do you understand?” Geoff and Jack nodded.

Warlocks were known to be the most logical of the Guardians. Titan’s punched first and asked questions later. Hunters shot first and asked questions after they were finished gloating. Warlocks waited and planned, and asked questions even when the dust of the battlefield was only just beginning to settle. Ikora was widely regarded as the best example of this.

“Eris Morns arrival at the Tower was not sudden. She is here because I asked her to come.” 

* * *

Ryan was not a tactician, and although Ray wasn’t either, it still didn’t make him any less annoyed at the fact that the Warlock had decided it would be a great idea to teleport right into the middle of the Blast, where the Fallen and Hive were currently engaged in battle.

They had argued strategy whilst circling over the Cosmodrome, no doubt physically cursing at each other in the confines of their ships. Gavin wanted to head straight to the Refinery, an air of ‘get this over with’ about him, but Ryan insisted on heading through the Blast. Ray felt that that was pointless. Ryan wanted them to check the Refinery, so they may as well head straight there from the Rocketyard, which was the quickest path. Ryan quite pointedly reminded them that Gavin had basically confirmed there might be a second Hive general in the Blast, so it was a better idea to check it out first.

The two Hunters complained further when Ryan’s Ghost reported a conflict taking place, Hive and Fallen, but Ryan became adamant when his Ghost couldn’t identify the Hive Ultra leading the pack. Certain that this had to be Omnigul, he made the final decision as Fireteam leader (making Gavin laugh and Ray cringe) and they materialised on Earth, braced for a fight.

Gavin had leapt immediately into action, taking out Dregs and Vandals to their right. Ryan moved forward and got to work on the Servitor Gavin hadn’t spotted in his eagerness to blunt his knife, giving Ray a few seconds to take in their surroundings. He didn’t like not getting his bearings first before a fight, and despite having been in the Blast countless of times to clear Fallen from the area, (and the occasional Devil Walker too, all by himself, don’t even mention it) this time was no exception.

Although once he laid eyes on the Hive Witch who was sending shrapnels of void energy at Fallen Captains pathetically trying to destroy her along with several Acolytes, he really wished he’d just got on with it. Now Ryan was going to get to say I told you so.

“Found that Witch, Ryan,” he said calmly, jumping onto a roof of steel grating to deliver the killing blow to the Servitor Ryan wasn’t struggling with. Ray equipped his sniper rifle, the one exotic weapon the Vanguard had allowed him to use, Ice Breaker. He used the scope to observe the Witch, who he supposed he better start calling by her name because god dammit, she was real. Ray had never seen anything like her. She was not a Wizard. She hovered in the air and moved like one, but her clothing wasn’t tattered rags and her eyes were piercing and ferocious.

“Believe me now?” Ryan said as he joined Ray on the grating, and they stood side by side eyeing up their enemy. Ray could practically hear his smirk. He asked Gavin how he was doing with the Fallen, and Gavin yelled in aggravation before cursing, grunting, and proclaiming that he had got all of them, but there were still some Captains along with a few Vandals under fire, and that he would take care of them before the Hive did.

Ryan told him not to, and to pay attention to what they were firing at. There was a beat of silence before Gavin cursed the heavens and jumped over to his other teammates. Omnigul’s shriek of laughter filled the air, and before Ray’s eye left the scope of his sniper rifle he could have sworn the edges of it cracked. 

“That’s it! That’s what I heard,” Gavin declared as she and the Acolytes continued to fight Fallen, unaware of the Guardians presence. “Bloody hell, Ryan. You were right.”

“Don’t tell him that,” Ray sighed. “He may look like one, but he definitely isn’t as humble as a Warlock.”

Gavin asked if they were going to take her out, to which Ryan said that they were going to try. Ray criticised his optimism, but the Acolytes spotted and then fired on them before a snappy comeback could be made.

Ryan told his younger teammates to get to cover and start firing on Omnigul. They split up, Ryan moving to the left in order to use a small extension of the building surrounding them for cover, and Ray staying put so as to utilise some high ground. Gavin dropped down from the steel grating and told them to watch his back as he summoned his Arc Blade. The Hunter glided towards the Acolytes, bouncing between them in quick succession and leaving a pile of corroded body parts in his wake. Once his ability wore off he jumped high and took aim at Omnigul, throwing an arc bolt grenade at her that attached to the crumbling wall behind her. The proximity damaged a large part of her shield, in that stupidly lucky way that Gavin seemed to have mastered.  

Ray and Ryan quickly shifted to their heavy weapons and rained bullets on her, Ray swerving to try and dodge the attacks she was still managing to deal out. Her health seemed to deteriorate, but Ryan told them to back off when she laughed again, high pitched and mocking, and waved her hand so that two green portals appeared. Gavin cursed and ran over to where Ryan was taking cover when Thralls began to run out of the portals, five or so heading straight for Ray and the rest for his teammates.

Ray threw down a sticky grenade, taking two of the Thralls out but doing no damage to the remaining few who jumped up to him. One of them became acquainted with the end of his knife as he threw it with pinpoint accuracy into its face. Another swiped at him, but he absorbed the blow and equipped his fusion rifle, charged it up, and blasted the last remaining two. He focused fire on Omnigul once again, trying to take down her shield so that they could all do massive damage together once Ryan and Gavin cleared out their share of Thralls.

“How are you guys doing over there?” Ray asked, reloading his fusion rifle. Omnigul’s shield looked considerably weakened; maybe one more clip would do it.

“We’re – ah, you sonuva – we’re fine, for now anyway,” came Ryan’s reply, and Ray looked over to see them both come out of their cover. He got her shield down and told them to fire, but before they could even switch back to their heavy weapons Omnigul summoned two more sickly green and black portals, calling upon a handful of Cursed Thralls.

Ray switched back to his pulse rifle and tried to take out at least one of the Cursed Thrall before they reached him, managing to do so and taking three others out in the process as it exploded. He backed up, waiting for more to jump up to him as their buddies had, but none came. Ray lowered his weapon and looked over to Ryan and Gavin, who had been fully forced out of their cover and were trying to eliminate the last of the Cursed Thrall. He asked if they needed help to which Gavin screamed and Ryan told him to get her shield down again.

With no Thralls to protect her, Ray jumped towards Omnigul and onto a pillar of stacked corrugated metal, not seeing the Knights behind her as a priority until he found out that they had Boomers. He was knocked off the pillar and onto his ass so he crawled forwards quickly, letting the pillar absorb the next bolt of rotting starfire for him and re-equipped Ice Breaker.

He had unloaded two bullets into one Knight when Ryan yelled at him; “Why isn’t her shield down, Ray!”

“The two Knights right behind her,” he shouted back. “Got one of ‘em.” He said as the Knight he was firing at combusted in a torrent of solar damage, unfortunately not close enough to take out the other Knight. Ryan told him he would take care of the other, and Ray lowered Ice Breaker in time to see the Warlock glide up into the air and fire a void blast at the last Knight, who disintegrated in a tornado of purple. With no Hive to fight by her side, Omnigul’s resulting cry pierced the air and she vanished.

“Not so tough now are you bitch?!” Gavin yelled, and Ryan told him to go take care of the Fallen who, with no more Hive to fire at, were now turning their attention on them. This was no problem for the Hunter who ran over to them with a mighty war cry.

With their louder member gone, Ray stayed silent to let Ryan catch his breath. He regretted it when Ryan managed to get out between pants; “I told you so.”

“You already said that, jackass.”

“No, no I didn’t. I asked you if you believed me yet, totally different thing.”

“Fine,” Ray said. “Feel better now?”

Ryan didn’t reply, and Ray considered apologising because that was what humans did when they were wrong. Then he wondered if he had anything to apologise for. When Geoff and Michael asked him to basically spy on Ryan’s talks with Eris Morn, he had shared their concern. Concern was a powerful human emotion, so whatever one did with concern was excusable. Ray knew how clinical it was to think like that, but it was literally just the way he was programmed. Exo’s were advanced to the point where only their own Ghosts could understand their inner functions. Their origin and purpose was lost as the humans who built them in the Golden Age perished in the Collapse. They spoke, moved, and experienced emotions like humans, but understood their flesh counterparts in a way that made most of them uncomfortable.

He was so busy excusing his entire race in his mind that he missed Ryan’s question completely.

“Huh, what did you say?”

Ryan sighed, Gavin yelled high pitched in the distance and the Awoken repeated himself. “I said have you even spoken to Eris, because having an actual conversation with her is a lot different to what you hear while you’re eavesdropping.”

“Yeah, yeah I’ve spoken to her.”

Not the answer Ryan was expecting. “What, when?”

“When she first came to the Tower,” Ray hadn’t been lying to Gavin either. He considered himself a pretty open minded Guardian, but that had been put to the test when he visited Crota’s Bane the morning after she landed.

Ryan asked what she possibly could’ve said that had put him off of her, and Ray laughed. “She asked for my help, wanted me to get something that she needed from the Chamber of Night.”

Ray remembered that morning. Nightmares had forced him up early, more Vex noise bullshit giving him the equivalent of a Human headache. They had been worse as of late, dreams of glass and falling through time itself. Rather than disturb anyone he decided to try and clear his head by competing in the Crucible before meeting up with Geoff and Jack for a Strike they had been planning.

Straight away he spotted her, stood by the North entrance. He didn’t approach, as she seemed deep in conversation with Ikora Rey, but made a note to see who she was when the days missions were over. He remembered hoping selfishly that she would help him attain better gear, like the Queens Emissary had a few months before on her own visit to the Tower. He had grabbed some bounties and headed out without much more thought.

“What did she need?” Ryan asked, breaking Rays brief reminisce.

“All she said was eyes.”

“Eyes?”

Ray hummed, and spoke quickly as he suspected Gavin was nearly done decimating the Fallen. “I know, right? Straight away I thought ‘yeah no fucking shit, lady’ but then she told me to go to Xur, to ask him for an ‘Urn of Sacrifice’, and he would tell me what I had to do then. So I went to the guy, bought the stupid thing - for fucking seven strange coins -and he said that I had to fill it up with embers from Thrall corpses,” Ryan shuddered dramatically. “Right! But here’s the thing about Thrall embers-”

“We ready to kill some Hive bastards?” Gavin bounced over to them, brimming with excitement. Ryan nodded and so did Ray. He supposed the rest of his story could wait until they had defeated this Fist of Crota. 

As they moved inside and headed for the Refinery, the easy going feeling wore off, and Ray was hit with a sense of foreboding. He had sat on the fence for so long, looking out for Ryan was a priority so he didn’t have time to make a decision on Eris Morn’s claims.

Michael was going to have a serious stubbornness issue to get over, Geoff and Jack too probably but less so. Omnigul, Crotas Will as Ryan had said, was real. The Fist of Crota was waiting for them. And that all mean that Eris was right, and more importantly, that the Hive were trying to awaken Crota. 

Or, as he would no doubt paraphrase to Michael later: they were all fucked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr - nerdy-kins.tumblr.com - for ah destiny au drabbles and other fake ah crew pieces that im still trying to decide whether or not I want to upload here. Stay tuned.


	4. Swordbearer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ‘This blade was lighter, easier to control yet more volatile. Ryan told his Ghost to scan it, but as the AI collected data the blade began to shake and change. Ray told him to let go but Ryan ignored him, watching it pulse green and black before vanishing in a forceful blast that made him put his foot back to get his balance.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.
> 
> (Chapters 1 to 8 are direct uploads from tumblr, so they'll all be going up at the same time. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be formatting the tumblr posts from then on - what with authors notes and such - so you'll just have to bear with me whilst I figure that out.)

Jack knew he was the most patient of his squad. While sometimes he would happily give that up to match the likes of Michael or Ray in fighting ability, there were times when his fireteam were met with a wall of Phalanxes, thoroughly outnumbered, and he was the only one who thought to wait until the Cabal foot soldiers moved and retracted their shields slightly before firing. Times like those, staying calm and getting his team through trouble safely, made him content to settle for a few misfires and overshot grenade throws.

This came in especially handy when Geoff was struggling to keep is head. Such was the case as Ikora Rey tried to explain The Hidden to them, and his Exo friend just seemed to become increasingly annoyed. Jack understood why, Geoff held Ikora in the highest respect not just because she was his mentor. However Jack could feel his squad leader struggling to gather why she had kept this from them when it might have put into danger the sanity of one of his teammates.

“So let me get this straight,” Geoff tried. “You knew Eris was in the Hellmouth and you told her to just stay there?”

Jack corrected him softly. “Eris survived the Hellmouth, Geoff. But Ikora asked her to return, asked her to use the shadows to gain information, right?” Ikora nodded, and Jack wondered if she was failing to see how infuriated Geoff was slowly becoming.

“The Hidden are my own doing, yes. They infiltrate our enemies strongholds and go further and deeper than any other Guardian has before, allowing them to learn and help us exploit weaknesses,” Her eyes turned down. “They are lone wolves, so to speak. Guardians with nothing left to lose. Therefore they are the only ones who can undertake such tasks. We have learnt much about our enemies from them.”

Geoff asked what, exactly. His scepticism seemed to bounce off Ikora as she confessed that before she had asked Geoff, Ryan and Jack to destroy the Fallen Kell, Draksis, a member of the Hidden posted on Venus and tasked with infiltrating the House of Winter (who she didn’t seem inclined to share the name of) had sent her word that the Fallen had parked their Ketch in the perfect position for a takedown.  

“They had urged me to waste no time, so I put my three best Warlocks to the task.”

Geoff huffed. “Favouritism isn’t making this whole thing any easier to believe.”

So Ikora went on, assuring them that Eris had given the Vanguard a sea of information; from the Hives weapons to the anatomy of a Seeder, everything they knew about the Hive had been richened by her persistent bravery. Time and time again Eris’s reports had put the Vanguard one step ahead of the Hive. They had a lot to thank her for, though she would not receive such thanks from the likes of The Speaker or Commander Zavala. They had their reasons, and Ikora supposed Eris would not accept their gratitude anyway.

“You said you had only her word. Well, take mine as well. Eris fled the Hellmouth once she saw Omnigul rise above the pits and sent me a message. I beckoned her here, hoping she could help equip Guardians for the fight against Crota.”

“But it’s hard to equip Guardians who don’t think there’s a fight to be had.”

Ikora told Jack he was correct once again, and her eyes lingered on Geoff, who seemed to be processing everything she had said to them. She asked him if he understood, and Jack prepared himself.

“Okay, two things,” Geoff said after some time. “First off, why come to us for this?”

“I wasn’t just flattering you when I called you my best Warlocks,” Ikora said through a thin smile. “You are of course the six Guardians who destroyed Atheon and brought down The Vault of Glass, there is no other team I would trust the capabilities of more. Your Raid did not go without casualty, I know, but the Hunter Ray still perseveres, and is handling better than anyone imagined. Your team is strong, Guardian. You should not worry.”

Geoff, through a gritted metal jaw told Ikora he appreciated her words.

“Eris notified me that she had asked Ryan to take on the task of defeating the Fist of Crota, and expressed concern when talking about the rest of his team. She wasn’t sure any of you would support him, and was certain none of you believed her.”

“That’s only because I could’ve sworn the last time a Guardian became so obsessed with the Hive, he was kicked  _out_  of the City. Not invited back in.”

The Warlock Mentors eyes narrowed at Geoff. “You speak of Toland the Shattered.”

“I do.”

Jack knew about Toland mainly from Ryan, but only really in passing as he explained the story to the lads on particularly dull patrols. He was exiled from the city because of his obsession with the darkness; he communed with it in an effort to understand it. That caused the Vanguard to cast him out, for fear of poisoning the minds of future Guardians. He was widely disregarded as insane, but that didn’t stop many people debating his exile; whether it was fair. Toland knew the Hive and the Darkness like no other Guardian, and took the majority of his writings with him when he left the city. 

“Toland was…” Ikora turned towards the windows; her face stony in the faint reflection. They could still hear her loud and clear.

“We gained much from Toland about the Hive, but ultimately his proclivity for obsession was responsible for his own demise,” she clasped her hands behind her. “His exile from the city was before my time, but his infamy was the reason Eris and her teammate, Eriana-3, sought him out to help them destroy The Son of Oryx. He warned us all about Crota but we did not believe him. That was our mistake.”

Jack hadn’t believed Ryan, or Eris. He had never said it out loud in an attempt to stay on the fence amongst his squad but hearing Ikora speak those words made his stomach twist. He felt guilty at the thought of practically writing off one of his teammates as mad, even if it was by omission. He thought of Ryan being kicked out of the city, exiled forever. Then he internally cursed himself, and also Geoff who was obviously rubbing off on him.

"Toland was the one who showed Eris how to use the shadows of the Hellmouth to her advantage in his last moments,” Ikora broke Jack’s chain of thought. “As mad as he was.”

“You’re telling us that Eris isn’t?” Geoff asked.

“Eris managed to drive away the temptations of Toland the Shattered. She is fuelled by something more powerful,” Ikora said before dismissing them. “Not obsession. Revenge.” 

* * *

Geoff had a rule with Gavin; never let him lead the pack. The young Awoken was like a movement activated alarm, screaming at anything that took him off guard. Ryan wished he’d remembered this rule when they turned the corner, so close to the Refinery, and before Ray or Ryan could even set eyes on the Acolytes praying to the same portal they had seen Omnigul conjure, Gavin had cursed loud enough to startle the Hive on their knees and a Blade of Crota had appeared as the portal vanished.

In Gavin’s defence, the Knight wasn’t that difficult to take down. Ryan still had his machine gun equipped, and half a clip had done the job whilst Ray and Gavin saw to the pitiful four Acolytes. By some small way of punishment, however, Ryan had told Gavin he wasn’t allowed to touch the relic that had dropped from the Knights hands and now levitated in the air.

The Hunter complained that he had missed out on taking down the Swarm Princes on the Moon, and that Michael had gone on for ages about how cool wielding Crotas’ Sword was against them. Ryan chastised him further; the sword was dangerous, dark and powerful.

And Ryan  _was_  going to have his Ghost scan it, see if it could handle the amount of darkness the sword was no doubt fuelled by in order to take it back to the Tower, rather than let it sit there and wait for another member of the Hive to reclaim it. But a group of Thrall suddenly screeching towards them forced his hand.

His teammates stood behind him, prised for the collision, but he picked the sword up with both hands clasped around the handle, and swung it across his front and over his head, using the momentum to jump and then slam it into the ground right as the creatures reached them. A dark energy cracked the Earth upon impact, taking the Thrall with it. He was swiped a couple of times by some remaining monsters, but swiftly glided into the air and repeated the move to wipe the last few out. Ray and Gavin stood unmoving, just staring. Gavin told Ryan he looked bloody awesome. Ray shrugged, he had seen it before.  

It was Ryan, Michael and Ray who had taken on the three Swarm Princes on the Moon what felt like so long ago. After finding the Sword of Crota, Ryan had done the same thing there to kill Garok, the Xol Prince before throwing the sword to Michael who defeated the next Yul Prince, Dakoor, and the Titan then passed it to Ray who took care of the last Eir Prince, Merok.

All of three of them had admitted to feeling more powerful when holding the sword, in confidence to each other, away from the Cryptarchs and the Mentors and the Speaker. It was a power they enjoyed but one they knew was dark and draining. Their Ghosts had warned them of this when they each wielded the sword, and they agreed it was best that the Sword of Crota was now locked away in the Tower, where the Darkness couldn’t reach it.

This power felt different to Ryan. This blade was lighter, easier to control yet more volatile. Ryan told his Ghost to scan it, but as the AI collected data the blade began to shake and change. Ray told him to let go but Ryan ignored him, watching it pulse green and black before vanishing in a forceful blast that made him put his foot back to get his balance.

“What the toss was that all about?” Gavin asked, and Ray walked up to Ryan’s Ghost and told him to scan Ryan now, to make sure he was okay.

“I’m fine,” Ryan said. “It’s fine. Correct me if I’m wrong but, Crota’s Sword didn’t do that, did it?”

“No, it didn’t.” Ray confirmed.

“Didn’t think so. It felt different too.”

“How so?” asked Ryan’s Ghost who indeed was scanning him now but swiftly reported that by all accounts his Guardian seemed fine, nothing more than a little bit startled. Ryan then explained what he felt when holding the blade, and Ray agreed that that didn’t sound like what it felt to hold Crota’s Sword. Gavin chimed in, theorising that Crota’s not just going to go and give everyone in his army an exact replica of his sword is he, and Ryan’s Ghost agreed. His Ghost also said that there were Hive hostiles around the corner, alerted of their presence and waiting for them.

“Sardon?” Ryan asked, and then remembered he hadn’t told his teammates the Fist of Crota’s name, so he clarified. His Ghost said that no, none of them could be him, but he was picking up even darker energy further in the Refinery. Sardon must be hiding in that tunnel, just like Ryan had suspected.

“No fucking way do you get another I told you so.” Ray declared, but Ryan didn’t feel like it anyway. He told them to push on, and to be ready for the Hive that awaited them. And he told Gavin to stay at the back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr - nerdy-kins.tumblr.com - for ah destiny au drabbles and other fake ah crew pieces that im still trying to decide whether or not I want to upload here. Stay tuned.


	5. The Fist of Crota

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael gets a slice of humble pie whilst Fireteam ‘holy shit Ryan was right’ descend into the Refinery to try and destroy the Fist of Crota.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.
> 
> (Chapters 1 to 8 are direct uploads from tumblr, so they'll all be going up at the same time. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be formatting the tumblr posts from then on - what with authors notes and such - so you'll just have to bear with me whilst I figure that out.)

Titans had a reputation. Hot headed, bare knuckle brawling brutes who got the job done in the most heavy handed way possible. Michael knew he wanted to be a Guardian since he was 14, but then made the firm decision to take on the Titan class when he was 18. By 24, Commander Zavala welcomed him to the ranks with a pat on the back and a pair of gauntlets that would make his fist of havoc even more powerful. They didn’t last, dismantled once he had got his hands on a more legendary pair, but it was a great honour nonetheless.

A lot had happened between then and now. Michael thought he’d be content soloing Guardian duties pretty much all his life, but then an Exo Hunter with a cocky spring in his step had insulted his baby, his exotic machine gun Thunderlord which he had won through glory in the Crucible. Then he had said meet my friends, and Michaels plans of solitude had evaporated like a Minotaur trying to get close enough to flatten you.

All of that had led him to here, sat in the Hall of Grimoire, swinging his legs back and forth pouring over Hive lore. The room reminded him of bigger version of where the Speaker dwelled. It was spacious and illuminating, and even in the night time filled with light and knowledge. There were papers scattered wherever you looked, and so many bookshelves even the frames confused themselves when trying to tell you exactly how many. They were endlessly tall and most of the time you had to ask your Ghost to recover a book for you as it was impossible to reach. You could find anything from information on the Golden Age (what little of it there was), to the most up to date writings on Cabal military technique and Vex machinery.

Michael knew there was a good chance Ryan had read everything in here, that it might make him feel better in the ongoing battle against the darkness. It didn’t have the same effect on Michael, who looked at waves and waves of books and yet still felt like the Vanguard were on the losing side of the war.

He knew where to hit a Thrall to take it out in one hit, how to confuse a Knight so you could get in close and rip its head from its rotting shoulders. But anything else he knew about the enemies beyond the city he had learnt from Ryan. Not even begrudgingly. Michael still remembered the first time they met. Ryan had taught him how to make his weapons better, had helped him make his baby even more powerful than when he first got it. Then Ryan knew Jack and Jack knew Geoff, and Michael introduced them to Ray who introduced them all to Gavin, and he found himself suddenly part of a squad.

From then on Michael went to Ryan for pretty much any knowledge that wasn’t just killing things. When they patrolled Meridian Bay together Ryan had told him all about Clovis Bray, and what the humans of the Golden Age had built there. After learning about Rasputin he had had Ryan show him in the Cosmodrome where the Warmind slept, and they had spoken about the importance of the music the AI played.

Then Ryan became a megaphone for Eris Morn, and Michael stopped taking him so seriously.

Commander Zavala had taught him to judge your enemy based on what you can see. That you can plan and wait all you want but you’ll never know how best to handle a fight until you get into it.

Eris Morn couldn’t see for shit. She may have climbed out of the Hellmouth, an inspiring task as Zavala had assured him, but the Hive darkness was easy to succumb too. His mentor had reminded him of this when he considered speaking with her for the first time. After a while, he decided against it. Then she and Ryan had become best pals, and with no solid evidence to back up any of her claims, Michael just became spiteful.

“You can read?” Geoff asked over his shoulder. Michael didn’t jump, just turned the page of the big leatherbound book he was staring at.

"No, big leather books just do it for me, ya know?"

Geoff asked him if he wanted to be the first Guardian kicked out of the Vanguard for sexual misconduct. Michael told him to shut up and sit down, kicking the chair to his right from under the table. The Exo spun the chair around and straddled it in one fluid motion.

“ _Hive Gods and Shrines."_ Geoff read aloud, and Michael hadn’t even realised that that was the page he had turned to.

“Yeah, I’m wondering if a sacrifice will be enough to summon Crota and get this whole thing over with,” he smirked. “Think Gavin will agree to help out? I hear Awoken are pretty tasty.”

“Nah, Gav’s too scrawny, you’ll just piss the big guy off more.” Geoff said.

Michael pretended to read some more, not caring if Geoff was too until his Exo leader broke the silence abruptly.

“What’re you trying to do, buddy? You think getting in a pissing match with Ryan over Hive lore is going to make you being wrong sting any less?”

Michael hated when people tiptoed around him. Most other Titans used it to their advantage but, if he was honest, he fucking hated it. The idea that someone couldn’t just say what was on their fucking mind around him was annoying. None of his squad members did that with him and he didn’t care if people who didn’t know their dynamic found it rude. It was great.

“It’s worth a shot. Can’t say it wouldn’t make me feel better to knock him down a few pegs.”

“Ryan’s not on any pegs, Michael.”

Michael turned the page again and huffed. “No, he’s totally got a peg-thing going on. You know, you Warlocks are supposed to be all ‘wisdom’ and,” Michael gestured weakly to the book, “’Knowledge’ and all that shit but you’re just as stubborn as the rest of us. Maybe even worse.”

Geoff laughed and put a hand over his non-existent heart. He told Michael how mean that was, but when Michael only huffed again and shifted in his seat.

“You know we pushed him though, Michael. We should’ve believed him – or, at least, supported him from the beginning.”

Michael grimaced. That was the sort of shit people said to each other when someone died. And in this line of work, he heard it a lot. He’d seen stony faced Guardians trying to keep it together after reporting to their mentors that they had just lost a teammate.

Michael once saw a young Hunter collapse on Cayde-6’s shoulder after losing his friends against the Cabal. They had been too confident and thought they could take on a Centurion all by themselves. The Cabal Major wasn’t alone, and they hadn’t been aware of the craftiness of Psions. With their Ghosts stolen from their unconscious forms, the young Guardian’s friends were easy pickings. The boy wailed that he should’ve listened to Cayde, should've listened to his friends who said they weren’t ready.

“It wasn’t him we didn’t believe. It was her.”

“It was both of them, I think.”

“No. It was her, Geoff. She had nothing to show for the shit she spouted and Ryan fucking ate it up.”

“Ryan trusts her, and we should too,” Geoff sounded upset, and Michael let the silence drag. The Exo went on, “It doesn’t fucking matter what she said. We should’ve trusted Ryan’s judgement. He’s our teammate and he’s our friend. Fuck, it sounds cliché as dicks, but if we don’t look out for each other away from the fight, it could cost one of our lives in the end.”

Michael closed the book forcefully, sighing and turning in his seat to give Geoff his undivided attention.

“So I’m guessing they got that Fist of Crota guy and you’re coming to tell me to get the stick out of my ass?”

“Not quite.” Geoff said, and turned his chair back around, sitting on it so that he was mirroring Michael.

“What’d you mean, not quite? Are they okay?”

“They’re fine, Michael, they’re not even back yet,” a couple of Titans walked by them, paying them no attention. Geoff stayed still, waiting until they had rounded the corner and onto the next row of shelves. He leaned in close, “I need to talk to you before they get here, though. Jack and I just got done talking to Ikora, and I figured if I explain this to you now, you can apologise to Ryan while I fill Ray and Gavin in.”

* * *

“And Commander Zavala’s like, ‘Where did you get this? This is a dark artefact Ray’ and basically starts freaking out, you know in that quiet, calm way that he does? Then he orders me to hand it over to him and I’m like, well, there’s no way that’s happening.”

After killing a couple of Hallowed Knights and another handful of Thralls and Acolytes, Ryan had led his fireteam down into the tunnel through the Refinery. Ray had never been any far into the tunnel, having only ever scanned it for the city. With a long walk ahead of them he had continued telling Ryan about the Urn that Eris had asked him to get from Xur. He had explained (filling Gavin in along the way) how he found out that embers from Thrall were the product of solar damage. So he went to the Vanguard Quarter Master to buy a fusion rifle equipped as such to do the job. But then Cayde called upon him with a special task and Ray had made the mistake of mentioning to the Hunter Mentor that a mission to the Moon was actually quite convenient. Cayde had asked why, to which Ray had told his mentor what Eris Morn had asked him to do. Cayde asked to see the Urn. Ray showed it to him and the Titan Mentor who seriously needed to learn to keep his purple nose out of other people’s business had had a whole lot to say about it.

“I imagine Cayde managed to talk you out of any trouble though.” Ryan said, and Ray nodded.

“Oh yeah, he said that Eris was a guest to our Tower and if she had given me a task I had to see it out. Zavala said that guests don’t fraternise with the Agent of The Nine, that no Guardian should. Cayde asked him where he’d gotten his shiny new Pulse Rifle from. Said that as far as he was aware, Mentors don’t really have much cause for leaving the city.”

“Fuckin’ got em,” Gavin added.

“Zavala means well.” Ryan assured them, and Ray supposed he agreed. The Commander could be the perfect example of stereotypical Titan sometimes, letting his own judgement cloud his thinking. But he had fought hard for the city in the battle of Twilight Gap and his military expertise was second to none. Michael pretty much took his word as law, worryingly enough to Ray, and he had fought about it with his closest friend a few times. But then Ray had called him an idiot and threatened to steal Michaels machine gun to which the Titan had told him that he could fucking try, and everything went back to normal.

As they had been walking, the tunnel opened up into a set of Grotto’s. Rock spikes hung from the domed ceiling, some going on to connect with the ground, which was so far from flat Ray wondered if this place was some cruel trick on a clumsy person. Hive tombs littered the place, decorated with intricate glowing runes. Wherever you stood made a wet sound and Ray could feel a chill creep through his armour.

He didn’t like it. There were few places for cover, no vantage points and if you did want to hide behind something, you wouldn’t be able to see an enemy coming for you until the last minute. Ray was too busy trying to figure out where the hell the Fist of Crota could be hiding in a place like this when Gavin pointed out the portal. With their weapons raised they had moved towards it.

Ryan and Gavin dropped down from a tiny ledge to stand closer whilst Ray moved around a sweeping rock formation to observe the portal from above. Ryan summoned his Ghost and said he was going to take some readings.

But as he reached his hand out towards the portal, the sound of a Hive tombship screeched through the air. The shrill tone ripped through Ray’s body and infested his head, making him clutch at it for a second. Gavin and Ryan too yelled in pain. Then there was silence, and The Fist of Crota appeared before them.

As Ryan told Gavin to run Ray opened fire on his back to get his attention, and Sardon sluggishly turned towards him swinging his blade. Ray jumped up and over the weapon, intending to triple jump over the Knights head to safety. His metaphorical heart stopped when he physically couldn’t jump any higher. Something felt like it was pushing against him.

“I can’t bloody jump, what’s going on!” Gavin shouted with his back to a cobwebbed wall. Ryan said he couldn’t glide either, and called Ray’s name right as he descended in front of Sardon’s feet.

Ray tried to run as soon as his feet hit the ground but he wasn’t quick enough. Sardon swiftly raised his sword above his head and brought it down on him, slamming him into the ground. His armour absorbed most of the blow but his chest plating was no doubt damaged as he struggled to breathe. Facing the ground, he heard Gavin yell at the ‘big stupid prick’ to come get him, and Ray crawled until he heard Sardon receding. Then he felt Ryan’s arms get him on his feet as they ran together behind one of the tombs.

“This isn’t good cover,” Ray said, placing a hand on his chest and feeling the metal there concaved. “There is no good cover in here, Ryan. You need to go help Gav. Tell him to get Gjallarhorn out.”

Ryan didn’t move.

“Go. NOW.”

Ryan switched to his machine gun, loaded it up and popped out from behind the Hive stone to help Gavin. Ray could only just see him frantically running backwards whilst shooting at Sardon.

Ray collected himself when he heard the screech of Thrall running into the Grotto’s. He loaded his fusion rifle up again and told Ryan and Gavin to focus on Sardon, that he would get the other Hive. Ryan yelled to Gavin to use Gjallarhorn, but Gavin screamed back that he didn’t have any heavy ammo. Ryan cursed and told him to switch with Ray, told him to take care of the Thralls and now Acolytes which were attacking them from every side. Sardon stalked towards the closest Guardian, hoping to get close enough to crush them with his ancient weapon.

“Keep killing things Gavin, find ammo!” Ryan instructed, and Gavin went to work while Ray and Ryan kept the Fist of Crota as far away from him as possible. They darted around; Ryan would shoot Sardons back when he got a little bit too close Ray. Ray would do the same for Ryan and they continued as such. If they got too close to Gavin they would both try and lead him away from the Hunter. They hopped as far as the weight of darkness would let them over malformed rocks and swiping Thralls and Acolyte shots, both of them trying to do some form of damage until Gavin could load up his exotic rocket launcher. 

Ray took aim at Sardon’s back as he ran towards Ryan, but a swipe at the back of his head disorientated him. He was dizzy just long enough for The Fist of Crota to back Ryan up against the cave wall, all available exits far from his reach. Ray did a one-eighty and killed the Thrall, turning again and running towards Ryan. But he was too late; Sardon had slammed his sword into Ryan twice before Ray was even within range. Their Warlock cried out the third time the blade came down on his head, and crumpled into the ground unmoving.

Ryan wasn’t dead. Ray knew that, but it still didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking when this happened to one of his friends. Especially when facing off against the Hive. Too much darkness could prevent a Ghost from bringing back its Guardian and the Hive were seething with it.

Ryan’s Ghost popped up above his broken body. Its outer shell enlarged into a circle of Light and emitted a signal that caused Ray’s own Ghost to say “Guardian Down.” Ray felt a pull towards Ryan’s location but with Sardon turning towards Gavin, he thought fast.

“What happened to Ryan?!” Gavin yelled as Ray ran a little bit further and fired into Sardons back, getting his attention again and turning to run.

“Tell me you have ammo, Gav!” was Ray’s reply.

“You’re just going to wait for Ryan’s Ghost to bring him back itself? You’re – DAMMIT GET AWAY – we can’t risk that, not here!”

“Focus on ammo! I’ve got Ryan!”

Ray knew Sardon had gained on him, so ran as far away from Gavin as possible. He dodged Acolytes and took Thralls hits without stopping. He led the Fist of Crota around a large rock pillar, turning to make sure he had followed him. When the Knight emerged from around the rock, Ray sprinted towards Ryan’s Ghost.

“When I bring Ryan back we’re going to bring his shield down, be ready!

“But I don’t-!”

Ray ignored Gavin as he slid towards Ryan’s body and told his Ghost to revive him. Whilst Guardians could cheat death, their own Ghosts could only do so much. With the help of another, the effect was almost instantaneous.

Ryan’s body disappeared as his Ghost’s circle of light silhouetted his standing form. Then he dropped down from where the little light had been transmitting the signal. Ray sprung up from his knees and told Ryan to fire at Sardon who was now sprinting towards them; blade high in the air. They both changed to their heavy weapons and fired desperately as The Fist of Crota got closer and closer and-

A rocket missile whizzed past them. Sardon stopped, perplexed, mere feet away from Ryan and Ray. He refocused his attention and raised his blade to deliver the killing blow. Ray watched the rocket fly around the Grotto before sharply correcting its course and hurtling towards the Fist of Crota.

The rocket hit its target and Sardon exploded into a million tiny pieces. The Hive surrounding them wailed and ran away with their General now defeated. Ray looked over to Gavin, down on one knee with Gjallarhorn over his shoulder. His fellow Hunter switched to his primary weapon and jumped high into the air, whooping now that the darkness lifted and he could utilise his agility again.

“Thanks,” Ryan said to Ray, walking over to the spot where Sardon died. He brought his Ghost out and asked it to scan the spot, and Ray’s Exo eyes saw the AI turn something into particle matter and absorb it. Gavin hopped over to them, and asked Ryan if he felt alright. Ryan said he was fine and Ray sarcastically mentioned that he was okay too Gav, thanks for asking. Ray touched his chest again; the metal was already beginning to right itself. Ryan commended Gavin on finding ammo just in time.

“Oh! Yeah, I found some synthesis.”

Ray and Ryan blinked at Gavin, who realised what he’d just said.

“You found some synthesis?” Ryan slowly repeated. Gavin laughed nervously and Ray asked him if he was fucking serious.

“You had synthesis the whole time?!” Ray yelled and Ryan began to laugh as Gavin squawked back at them that he had just forgotten.

“Goddamit Gav, you’re such a fucking idiot.”

“Oi! I got him didn’t I? Should be thanking me you stupid tin can-“

Ray hit Gavin with the butt of his gun, and after making far too loud a sound for such a small injury, Gavin raised his own gun and threatened to do the same to Ray. Ray backed up telling Gavin not to do it, and the two hunters chased each other around the Grotto. Ryan summoned his Ghost and asked it to take them all to orbit.

As they sat in their ships, beginning the journey back to the tower, Ray and Ryan ridiculed Gavin who was now begging them not to tell Geoff or Cayde about his blunder. They just laughed even further, refusing to promise that and Ray began to feel better about the whole situation. Sure, they might have got lucky. But luck seemed to be on their side, which was better than nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr - nerdy-kins.tumblr.com - for ah destiny au drabbles and other fake ah crew pieces that im still trying to decide whether or not I want to upload here. Stay tuned.


	6. Middaye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ‘If Michael got mad at you, it took a lot to make him un-mad. Gavin knew that. He also knew that Geoff was probably the most optimistic out of all of them on the squad. But whilst he was relaying Ikora’s message to himself and Ray, thelights in his leaders eyes seemed dimmer. Ryan had become more argumentative,and Ray even more quiet which Gavin thought was impossible. He didn’t like it. Everyone was losing their minds over this Crota thing, and it was no different to any other challenge they had faced.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.
> 
> (Chapters 1 to 8 are direct uploads from tumblr, so they'll all be going up at the same time. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be formatting the tumblr posts from then on - what with authors notes and such - so you'll just have to bear with me whilst I figure that out.)

Night had fallen heavily upon the city when they materialised back in the Tower. Ghosts and dimly lit spotlights scattered around, not quite filling the courtyard with light, but making the Tower easier to traverse.

Ryan wasn’t up to gloating. He knew he had a tendency to let a smug grin take over his face when proven right. But as he told Ray and Gavin to go find everyone else and let him catch up later, he didn’t know what to feel.

Eris was alone so Ryan ascended the white stairs outside the entrance to the north tower and took a left so as to greet her.

“Guardian,” she said, suddenly ripping her eyes away from the orb she held in her hands. “Ryan.”

“We got him. The Fist of Crota, he’s dead.”

Eris smiled, or at least Ryan thought she did. It was as tainted as the shadows that poured from her eyes.

“I had no doubt,” she said, and then spoke to the orb, the harsh green illuminating her features. “My fears appear to be true; this could be the beginning of a dark journey.”

“Eris, he wasn’t alone,” her eyes snapped up again and she asked Ryan what he meant. “Omnigul. She was protecting him, trying to push Fallen from the area.”

“Crota’s vile Will,” she addressed the orb once again. “She has made her way to Earth. She means to wipe the scavengers from the land and prepare it for her master.”

Ryan recounted what had happened to them when they arrived in the Blast. How they had killed the Fallen, and then focused their efforts on Omnigul to no avail. Ryan remarked that she seemed powerful, maybe even more so than when Eris faced her.

Ryan remembered then that it was Sai Mota, the Hunter who put actions before words who had fallen to Omnigul in the depths of the Hellmouth. One time, when Eris had been surveying the city and Ryan had approached her back, he had heard her talking to herself. It wasn’t a surprising thing for her to be doing, he had found out.

“How long has it been since I lost her?” she had asked no one.

Ryan had asked who by way of a hello. She turned and greeted him without answering. Ryan dropped it from then on, thinking that if Eris cared about, even loved someone in her squad enough to lament over them specifically, it was merely respect to leave it alone.

Ryan promised that next time they would destroy Omnigul. Eris admired his determination.

“She is a slippery Witch, Ryan. You and your team did well to even best her. But now that she knows our Light is strong, she will stop at nothing to try and cripple us.”

“I know. That’s why I think she’s going after Rasputin.”

Ryan knew it might be a stretch, but he had been thinking about the possibility ever since Gavin told them he had heard screaming in the Blast. The Fist of Crota was powerful enough on his own; he had nearly killed Ryan and Ray, so why would he need protecting? Omnigul had to have been on Earth for another reason, unless she was just paranoid as well as desperate to see Crota’s return. Ryan could only think of one other place Crota’s Will would go now that she knew Guardians were hunting her down.

“The Last Warmind,” Eris said thoughtfully, giving Ryan her undivided attention. “Yes, I think you are right. If the Hive destroy him, or even worse, take control of him, they could wipe us out like spiders caught in their own webs.”

Ryan told her he would talk to Ikora; see if anyone had reported anything strange at the Forgotten Shore. In an area so heavily coveted over by the Fallen, Hive activity would raise some alarms. Hopefully they hadn’t breached the Warmind yet, and someone could get inside to better his security and keep him safe.

“I’ve never known him to accept visitors,” Eris warned.

“But if the Hive are planning on attacking him at the source, we have to find a way to get inside and protect him,” Ryan argued, and then laughed dryly. “At least it’ll be easier to convince my team this time around.”

“Ah, yes. The earwigs,” Eris said and Ryan told her they meant well. He noticed how often he’d been saying that lately. Eris meant well. Commander Zavala meant well. His friends meant well. There was a lot of benefit of the doubt going around and Ryan didn’t know how to feel about that either.

“No, we’re just assholes. She’s right about that.”

The last person he expected to hear this close to Eris was Michael. The Titan was about a foot behind him but stepped up to join the conversation. He had been there, apparently since ‘slippery Witch’ and Ryan cringed. This was not happening. Not right now.

“So Crota’s going after Rasputin, and there’s no way to get in at all?” Ryan told himself he must have imagined the genuine concern in Michael’s voice.

“Unfortunately not, Titan. Only if he lets you enter.”

Michael didn’t seem satisfied with that answer. “He’s a robot. A fucking AI. We could get in somehow, our Ghosts can hack Hive runes but not our own technology?”

Rasputin was not their technology. Rasputin was a force to be reckoned with, even in his slumber. Ryan wondered if Michael listened to him at all when he tried to teach him the history of the world.

Eris focused on Michael and spoke with diction. “Rasputin is a treasure to both covet and fear, Guardian. If you break his trust, he will break you.”

Before Michael could open his mouth again, Ryan turned to him sharply. “Have you spoken to Ray or Gavin yet? Have they told you about-“

“Yeah, they told me about the Fist guy, told me about the Witch and everything else. I get it. I’m not here to fucking argue with you Ryan, okay?” Michael paused and turned to Eris. “I get it. And I believe you. Both of you. So stop fucking around and tell me how we protect Rasputin.”

Taken aback was a light way of putting it. Ryan tried to explain, figuring that glossing over his transgression was just another way of accepting Michael’s backwards apology.

“We’re not… Fucking around, Michael. Rasputin is smarter than our Ghosts and after sustaining so much damage during the Collapse, he doesn’t really trust anyone. But there’s no other way of keeping the Hive away if we can’t help him from the inside.”

Michael bit his lip and looked to Eris, who told him Ryan was correct. There was no way to enter where the Warmind called home. Michael asked how they were so sure that the Hive were going to be able to get in if even Guardians couldn’t. Eris sneered and told him not to underestimate his enemy.

“Fine. So he has to let us in?”

Eris nodded. Michael’s eyes met the floor, solemn and considerate. He spoke again, “I opened up one of his arrays a few years back. The Fallen were trying to… destroy it, I guess. Some Guardians died trying to use codes to get in, running a mission for Dead Orbit and I just picked up their trail and went from there. And then the Hive wanted in on it too - fuck, it was so long ago, but the point is, my Ghost managed to get him to open up. He was in trouble then, if he was under attack from a threat, he’d have to let a Guardian in. He’d be more willing to, right?”

“I suppose… Wait, that was you?” Ryan had _read_ about what Michael did, back when he had barely traversed beyond the City. Some Guardian had managed to open up the Warminds array, bringing about the possibility that other Warminds across the universe were salvageable too. The information the Tower had on Rasputin had been added to immensely. Ryan couldn’t believe he didn’t know that that was because of Michael.

“Yeah, it was one of the first things I did as a Guardian that wasn’t just patrolling the fucking Cosmodrome killing Dregs and Shanks.” Michael confirmed, but then reiterated his question:

If Rasputin was under attack, if the Hive got to his controls and started messing around, and a Guardian just so happened to walk by, would the last Warmind let them in?

“He’d do more than that. He’d cry out,” Ryan tried to remember which pre-Golden Age symphony was Rasputin’s code for help. “What’re you thinking?” he asked and Eris spoke for Michael.

“He suggests you wait until the Hive take Rasputin.”

“Not take – we wouldn’t let them get that far,” Michael grinned and went on before Eris or Ryan could interject.  “We just wait long enough to let the Hive think they’ve got Rasputin, right where they want him but then we come to the rescue, and he’ll have to let us in. He knows the Hive are a threat, he’d open up straight away.”

Eris seemed to be regarding Michael with amusement. “You think the Hive will not see you coming?”

“Who gives a shit if they do? We can take them. Wipe them all out and send a message so that they never touch Rasputin again, with any luck that Witch will be there too and we can kill her in the process.”

Eris hummed, as close to a laugh as Ryan guessed she could get. “Vell Tarlowe would have liked you. What do I call you, Guardian?”

“Michael.”

Eris repeated it, rolling his name around her tongue before telling them that, as dangerous as it was letting the Hive siege Rasputin, it seemed to be their only option. She trusted Ryan’s team to not let the Hive complete their task before they could protect the last Warmind, and maybe even destroy Omnigul at the same time.

“The agents of Crota must be destroyed,” she said. “You killed the Fist, but his Will remains. If even one of these monsters walks the Earth, the threat of Crota will never fade.”

“We’ll get right on it.”

“No we fucking won’t.” Michael told Ryan, apologising to Eris. He told Ryan that after the events of today, they all needed to regroup and plan against the Hive ready to take them on in the morning. Ryan argued back but Michael was adamant. They were not doing this tonight, Geoff’s orders.

Ryan stopped himself from protesting further, lest he ruin the peace he had managed to gain from Michael once again. Eris said nothing, but bowed her head as they said goodbye and Michael told Ryan everyone else was waiting in the New Monarchy lounge.

“New Monarchy?” Eris spoke up as they turned to begin walking. She bowed her head again as they turned back, and mumbled to herself. “So close to the Speaker. Be careful what you say to the wind, Guardians. It travels fast and falls upon the ears of those not trustworthy.”

To Ryan’s surprise, Michael didn’t have the expression of someone who had just heard a ‘crazy lady’ talk to herself. They both shared a look and the Human’s brow furrowed in the same way someone would look at a puzzle to be solved.

Ryan turned and Michael followed him. They walked through the north tower entrance in silence, and down the first flight of stairs before Michael grabbed Ryan’s arm and looked at him nervously.

“What did Eris mean, about the Speaker?” Michael asked and Ryan supposed he had misjudged the Titans intellect.

He replied barely above a whisper. “That when it comes to Crota and Eris’s mission, the Speaker isn’t the best person to be around.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

A Hunter walked up the stairs past them in a hurry, and Michael let go of Ryan’s arm. Satisfied that no one else was around he continued. “The Speaker doesn’t believe Eris’s claims. He thinks she’s just insane. He doesn’t trust her, so she doesn’t trust him.”

“That makes no fucking sense; he’s the one who tells us to help visitors the Tower. Lord Saladin, the Awoken Queen’s Emissary, why wouldn’t he be on her side?”

“They give us bounties and weapons and then disappear,” Ryan said, feeling as though he was saying too much. “They don’t overextend their invitations. Eris has no intention of leaving until Crota is dead.”

“So?”

Ryan racked his brain trying to figure out a better way of explaining what the Speakers motives were (well, what he believed they were based on what Eris and Ikora had told him).

“You remember everything I told you about Toland the Shattered? How he was kicked out of the city for preaching to Guardians about the return of Crota and his father Oryx?”

“Yeah, I remember. I was talking to Geoff about that earlier. He was banished for becoming obsessed with the Hive and…” recognition flashed across Michaels face.

“Why would the Speaker want a Hive obsessed Guardian in the Tower when another one was kicked out for the same reasons.”

Ryan nodded. Michael whistled dramatically and then asked if Ryan was going to mention this to anyone else.

“I’ve been waiting for the right time.”

Michael laughed. “You mean you’ve been waiting to be proven right?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“So what, she thinks he might try and talk us out of it?”

“Out of what?”

“Killing Crota. That is what we’re doing, right? Like, that’s the goal here.”

Ryan hadn’t thought that far ahead. He didn’t even know where Crota was, hadn’t had the guts to ask Eris yet. He supposed so, he told Michael, but that was a bridge to cross when they got there. Michael told him that might come sooner rather than later.

Michael didn’t look like he was done so Ryan waited again. The human bit his lip, shuffled his feet and then sighed in annoyance. “Look, I just want to do this now so that I don’t hear the end of it from fucking Gavin. I’m sorry. I should’ve trusted you. Trusted your judgement.”

“It’s fine, Michael, you were just worried.”

“No, I was just a prick,” Michael said, and when the frame sweeping the same spot at the bottom of the stairs looked up he lowered his voice. “Stop fucking making excuses for me, okay? Or for Ray or Geoff or everyone else – you have the right to be mad.”

Someone had once told Ryan he’d have made a great Titan. Ironically enough, his ego had taken a hit and he had pushed back all Titan characteristics. Leadership, brutality, pride. As a result he had buried himself even further into his books and lore. Some of those traits still ebbed out, today being a good enough example of that. He started to slip seemingly around about the time a human Warlock had asked if he was finished with that book and then told him to come meet his friends.

“We should tell the guys to meet us somewhere else.” Michael proposed, but Ryan wasn’t sure.

“It’d just make us look like we have something to hide, and we don’t, not really, so I think we’re good.”

Michael nodded. They walked towards the New Monarchy lounge, and Ryan revelled in the irony that apparently, he was one to judge a book by its cover.

* * *

Gavin was loyal to the Future War Cult, but he had to admit, he liked New Monarchy’s lounge better. The War Cults’ lounge was somewhat hidden in the hangar, high up and tucked away. New Monarchy’s embraced the natural light and was incredibly spacious, hanging on the cusp of a balcony. With it being so late, only small lamps and the embers of the firepit illuminated the area. You could talk to your peers around the concealed fire as they sat across from you on square formation seats.  

After Ryan had parted with Gavin and Ray to talk to Eris, the two Hunters went to find the rest of their squad. They had found them, bizarrely enough to Gavin, in the Hall of Grimoire. Jack, Geoff and Michael were sat around a table, around a book that Michael hid the title of as soon as they walked up. Gavin greeted his best friend, who smiled back but then turned to Geoff and said he was going to find Ryan.

Gavin complained, wondering what the hell had gotten into everyone lately. As they walked to the New Monarchy lounge, Geoff and Jack explained to the Hunters the information Ikora had shared with them.

And Gavin still didn’t get it.

He had stretched himself across an entire sofa with his feet on Geoff’s lap whilst waiting for Michael and Ryan. When they finally walked down into the lounge area, he made a disgruntled noise as Geoff stood up. When he blinked his yellow eyes open and saw Michael, he jumped up also.

Ray and Jack stood then as well, and for once in the history of this squad, no one knew what to say.

“Awkward.” Ray said which caused a small ripple of laughter. Jack told Ryan that he was sorry for not trusting him and Ryan said that it was okay. Gavin felt compelled to do the same and Ray followed suit, to which Ryan said sarcastically he hoped they believed him now.

“Seriously, if after all of that you two still didn’t believe me I would’ve just preferred to stay dead.”

“You died?” Geoff asked, and Ryan faltered. Their leader had seen too many Guardians irrevocably die to rely on Ghost’s for regeneration as much as any younger Guardians did.

“Uh,” Ryan started. “Yeah. I’m fine though!” He exclaimed, putting his arms out as though awaiting examination. Ryan had a goofy grin plastered on his face as he promised; “Good as new! Just like always.”

Geoff sighed, unable to hide a similar grin but went on, asking Ryan what was next.

“Rasputin.” he said, and explained the conversation he and Michael had just had with Eris Morn. Geoff nodded along; agreeing that there was no other place on Earth Omnigul would go. Although he wondered aloud how the fuck they were going to time it right.

“We gotta know when the Hive are in there before they set up shop, we can’t give them the time to fuck around with Rasputin.”

“We have to know the second they’re in there so that we can get on top of it,” Jack echoed Geoff.

“Can’t we have our Ghost’s at least link up with Rasputin?” Gavin asked, wondering why this was so bloody complicated. Michael shook his head.

“I don’t know if that’ll work, Gav. If Rasputin’s really that picky about letting anyone in there’s no way he’ll let a Ghost link up with his mind, right?” Michael looked to Ryan for confirmation. The Warlock nodded but his Ghost popped up sharply.

“If I may interject,” it bobbed indignantly. “I might be able to coax the old Warmind into some sort of agreement.”

Ryan asked what kind of agreement the Ghost meant. “I can talk to him. Try to convince him to let us keep him safe.”

“Eris said that Rasputin didn’t accept visitors,” Michael said. “I don’t think you’re going-“

“I wasn’t finished,” The Ghost swivelled towards Michael. “I may not be able to get him to open up, but I might be able to get him talking long enough to create a connection. So that I know when the Hive do attack.”

“You think you can do that?” Jack asked the Ghost.

“It’s worth a shot,” Ray said. “It’s either this or, fucking, wait around the Forgotten Shore until the Hive get in.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Ryan repeated.

It wasn’t that Gavin didn’t understand what was going on. The Hive were trying to bring about Crota’s return, so that he could conquer the Earth the same way he had the Moon. He knew all about Eris and her fireteam. He knew that she had become a part of the Hidden so as to help the Vanguard, but came to help Guardians more closely when she saw what the Hive were planning. The Hive needed to be stopped. He understood that part.

“Alright, asshole,” Geoff said, looking at Ryan. “You and me, tomorrow. We’ll go and see if your Ghost can make a connection with Rasputin.”

Ryan nodded as his Ghost disappeared, and Jack asked if they needed one more person, a full fireteam just in case. Geoff shrugged his shoulders; it was only a two man mission. Get in, sweet talk the last Warmind and get out.

And with that, Geoff told them all to get to bed. Ray, Jack and Geoff walked off whilst Michael leaned towards Ryan to get his attention.

“If you have trouble getting in at the Forgotten Shore, try near his array. In the Terrestrial Complex?”

Ryan nodded and thanked Michael. There was a pause between them, until Ryan clasped Michaels shoulder and went on his way.

And that was what Gavin didn’t understand. He grimaced, “Jeez. You should’ve pecked him on the cheek at least.”

Michael told Gavin to shut the fuck up, but Gavin only started making kissing noises. He pursed his lips at Michael and shoved his shoulder playfully. Michael barely moved. They walked together towards the Tower Plaza, everyone else swiftly gone, leaving the two alone.

“What’s gotten into you, anyway?”

“Hmm?” Michael asked and Gavin scoffed.

“You’ve given up all of a sudden.”

“What does that mean?” Michael asked, but Gavin went on, trying to find answers.

“You were so pissy at Ryan but now you’re best friends again.”

“Fucking, so?” Michael said and Gavin huffed again.

“You’re not mad at him anymore?”

“No?” Michael sounded hesitant. Gavin raised an eyebrow.

“Look, I know I can be a real piece of shit Gav, but he was right. Didn’t Geoff talk to you?” They had begun to climb the stairs towards the plaza now.

“Yeah but why were you mad with him in the first place then?”

Michael stopped one stair above Gavin and turned to look down on him. “Just, forget it Gav. I’m too tired to explain.”

“Bullshit.” Gavin said then, halting Michaels step away from the conversation.

“Seriously? You want to do this now.” Michael snapped.

If Michael got mad at you, it took a lot to make him un-mad. Gavin knew that. He also knew that Geoff was probably the most optimistic out of all of them on the squad. But whilst he was relaying Ikora’s message to himself and Ray, the lights in his leaders’ eyes seemed dimmer. Ryan had become more argumentative, and Ray even quieter which Gavin thought was impossible. He didn’t like it. Everyone was losing their minds over this Crota thing, and it was no different to any other challenge they had faced.

“I don’t get why you just gave up so easy if you were so mad at him – you were screaming at him earlier and now you’re best mates again!”

"Because we were worried about him Gav, and then everything got resolved that’s how arguments work!"

"But why? Why were you so worried, I don’t understand-!"

“Well that’s because no one trusted your big fucking mouth in the first place to make you understand!”

“What?” Gavin asked.

Michael curled his lip. “Just forget it.” He mumbled, and turned away.

“Michael!” Gavin grabbed the Titans arm, half expecting it to be ripped out of his grip. But Michael stopped, turned back and met Gavin’s eyes. Then he sighed, Gavin released his hand and he ran it through his hair, the curls bouncing back from the laxed grip.

Michael sighed. “I’m sorry.” He said, and sat on the stairs. Gavin sat next to him immediately.

Gavin let them sit in silence for a while, trying to come up with something to say. He was grateful for the random gushes of wind that came and passed over his skin, soothing him slightly. He rested his arms on his knees, connected his fingers whilst Michael let his own rest limply in his lap.

“We just didn’t want Ryan to know we were spying on him.” Michael said, staring at the floor, “So we chose not to tell you we were worried about him. Just in case you let something slip.”

“You still could’ve told me  _something_ ,” Gavin thought about earlier that day, seeing Ray on the balcony. “I didn’t have a bloody clue what was going on. If you were worried, I should’ve known why.”

“To be fair, we didn’t know what was going on,” Michael confessed. “Geoff noticed Ryan was just talking to her all the fucking time, and when he tried to get him to do something else Ryan got all… I don’t know man, he just refused and that’s when Geoff spoke to me about it.”

“And then he told Jack, you spoke to Ray…”

Michael rested his face in his hands. Gavin didn’t know what to say. He was pissed, yes, of course he was. But he also understood. He didn’t trust his own mouth at the best of times, and if everyone really was so worried, then, maybe it was for the best. It still stung, still made him angry that he didn’t know that there was a problem amongst them.

"What got you worried, then?" He asked and Michael sighed, practically in defeat.

"It was just…" The Titan made a disgruntled noise. "The fucking things she was saying to him. We thought she was making it up. We thought that he was going to drag us along on a suicide mission just because she was paranoid about something. We didn’t want him to…"

"To lose his mind?" Gavin  supplied, "End up like her?"

"Yeah. Yeah, something like that."

Gavin wasn’t done being angry about this. They were a team, they needed to work together. But he’d let it slide for now, especially after noticing the bags forming under Michaels eyes. It was a strange human thing, which meant they were tired. So he’d wait, maybe take it up with Geoff.

“My mouth’s not that big, is it?”

Michael smirked, “It’s pretty big, dude. Probably a strong contender for biggest thing on your fucking face alongside your nose.”

“Underneath my nose, technically.” Gavin said which got a laugh out of Michael.

Upon realising just how much this had affected everyone, his stomach did a slight flip. Maybe this wasn’t going to be the same as the Vault of Glass.

“Next time,” Gavin stood up with a grunt and a small hop, “just tell me what’s going on, alright?”

He extended his hand out to Michael, who grabbed Gavin by the wrist and pulled himself up.

“Will do, boi.” He promised, and they walked up the last flight of stairs towards the Tower Plaza.

When they emerged, the cool night air hitting Gavin like a tidal wave, he spared a look at Eris Morn. Michael would tell him later that he probably imagined it, but Gavin could’ve sworn he saw a smile on her face as they walked by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr - nerdy-kins.tumblr.com - for ah destiny au drabbles and other fake ah crew pieces that im still trying to decide whether or not I want to upload here. Stay tuned.


	7. Tchaikovsky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ‘He so desperately needed Ryan to just – slow down, about Crota, about the Hive, about everything. Maybe he had taken the story of Toland the Shattered too much to heart. Maybe what he saw were just imaginary connections between the exiled Warlock and Ryan. Ignoring them was too much to risk, though. He didn’t want to consider the consequences.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.
> 
> (Chapters 1 to 8 are direct uploads from tumblr, so they'll all be going up at the same time. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be formatting the tumblr posts from then on - what with authors notes and such - so you'll just have to bear with me whilst I figure that out.)

A thick fog hung over the Cosmodrome, grey and wet and unpleasant. Geoff hated this kind of weather; it was only a precursor for the storm to come. And he wished it would just come, and go, and be over and done with. But the chill along his steel skin and the misty breath that erupted from the Dreg as it screamed in their direction told him that he would have to wait a little bit longer. 

Ryan’s sniper rifle took the Dreg and its friends out easily enough. They waited then for the barrage of Hive that would run from the Seeder, and almost like clockwork came Thralls and Acolytes, charging up the small hill. With all the time in the world, Ryan glided up and unleashed his Nova Bomb on them. Geoff did the same to the Fallen who had caught on to their presence behind them. And with one final well placed grenade for the Acolytes who had spawned from the cave around the corner, they were alone. The Skywatch fell into silence.

“We’re the best.” Geoff said, and Ryan scoffed.

“Or we’re in a level 4 area. That might have something to do with it.”

Geoff shushed him. “No, no, we’re just fucking awesome.”

Ryan laughed, and Geoff told himself  _now, do it now_ , but wussed out.

“Sorry about Rasputin, buddy.”

“It’s alright. It was a long shot, anyway.” Ryan crossed his right arm over his torso and started fiddling with his Warlock bond. Geoff had long since given up telling him to stop doing that. “I hoped the array might work too, but, nah.”

That morning they had gone to Ikora Rey to tell her their plans. She had walked them over to the bay windows again and told them of a secret entrance to Rasputin’s bunker not known by many Guardians. They had gone there in the hopes of tricking Rasputin into establishing a link with Ryan’s Ghost. All it had seemed to do was piss the Last Warmind off even more. Then they had travelled up to the array in the Terrestrial Complex, tried Geoff’s Ghost this time to see if it made a difference. But they couldn’t even get Rasputin to tell them to ‘fuck off’ never mind open up for them.

“The array was a good call though. It almost worked.”

“Not my call,” Ryan looked around him and then sat on a rock, satisfied that no enemies were going to pop up anytime soon. “Michael tipped me off about it.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. You know he was the one that opened it up a few years back?”

Geoff nodded. Michael was reluctant to tell that story sometimes, for all his Titan egotism the young human sure got humble whenever anyone brought it up. Geoff told Ryan as much.

“That explains why I had no idea.” He said, and Geoff repeated him, turning it into a question. Ryan shook his head, said he had only just learnt about it yesterday.

“I think he’s just embarrassed because he had no idea what or who Rasputin was before he opened up one of his fucking arrays.” Geoff told him, feeling no shame.

“Really? He had no idea at all?”

“Well, he knew of him. He had heard the tales and all that shit but, wasn’t until Zavala rewarded him that he actually figured out what he had done.”

Ryan shook his head. “Wow.  Wait, how the fuck do you know that anyway? Did he tell you?”

“Gavin told me.”

Ryan snorted. “Of course he did. Kid’s got a mouth bigger than an Ogres asshole.”

Geoff’s laugh disturbed a flock of crows. As they flew into the air Ryan started laughing along too, watching Geoff clap his hands together a couple of times before sitting down next to Ryan on the rock. A few dying owl sounds later, Geoff stopped laughing. He was grateful that he didn’t have a gut that could be busted in situations like these.

“How are you and Michael, anyway?” he said as he regained his composure, still smiling widely underneath his helmet.

“Not at each other’s throats anymore, which is nice,” Ryan stopped fiddling with his bond. “He apologised. After showing me up in front of Eris, though.”

“God forbid.” Geoff said, and asked how. Ryan admitted that letting the Hive siege Rasputin was all Michaels’ idea. That didn’t surprise Geoff, really. Michael was a brilliant tactician when he put his mind to it. Ryan agreed.

“He needs to be there. When the Hive siege Rasputin.”

Geoff’s metaphorical stomach dropped. Now or never.

“Yeah, I agree. And, about that.”

Geoff was thankful, quite pitifully for the helmets they wore, so he couldn’t see Ryan’s expression. Although he could imagine the eyebrow raise that, without the headgear, would encourage Geoff to continue.

“I want Michael and Ray on that mission. With me.”

Ryan moved backwards slightly, as though physically hit with those words. “You’re… Benching me?”

Geoff had collected a million explanations in his head since the second he powered up this morning. He had dwindled down his options and plan of attack to this:

 _I need to see this shit first hand_. Or:

 _I need to see what Omnigul is capable of_. Then:

 _No one’s been inside Rasputin in decades._  Followed by:

 _That’s why I need Michael’s brutality and Ray’s agility_. Finished off with:

 _I'm sorry_.

None of these explanations spoke of his true feelings. He so desperately needed Ryan to just – slow down, about Crota, about the Hive, about everything. Maybe he had taken the story of Toland the Shattered too much to heart. Maybe what he saw were just imaginary connections between the exiled Warlock and Ryan. Ignoring them was too much to risk, though. He didn’t want to consider the consequences.

 _This is going to help you_. Was a last resort.

 _I don’t want you ending up like him._  Was something Geoff didn’t want to admit.

 _Please don’t make me go through that again._  Was downright selfish and Geoff knew it.

He had braced himself with explanations because he expected Ryan’s rage. Prepared himself for an argument. But the Awoken sighed, and all he did was ask Geoff why.

Geoff opted for  _seeing this shit first hand_  so that Ryan couldn’t rebuttal with his own knowledge of Omniguls capabilities. He then went ahead with the rest of the spiel, topping his apology off with a clasp of Ryan’s shoulder, squeezing it. That was something Geoff knew that humans did for comfort, and it had worked every other time he had used it.

Ryan stood up, agitated. He turned towards Geoff.

“I don’t like it.”

“I didn’t expect you to like it. I just need you to deal with it.”

“It’s just - I -” Ryan looked like he was fighting with himself. An exasperated sigh left his lips as he crossed his arms in finality. “I can deal with it. Just, be careful.”

Geoff smiled wearily. “Aren’t we always?”

“Considering you’re putting the one person on this team who has the most extensive knowledge on Rasputin to the side, I’d say you better be extra careful.”

That stung, mostly because it was painfully accurate, and an answer Geoff wasn’t anticipating. He brushed it off easily enough. He teased that it may be quicker for them to get through Rasputin’s bunker without Ryan taking environmental scans every five fucking minutes. Ryan’s comeback was silenced by the sound of Geoff’s Ghost popping up between them.

It started talking without so much as a hello. “Ikora needs you to get back to the Forgotten Shore. Right now.”

“What?” Geoff stood up abruptly. “The Hive are taking Rasputin? Now?”

“She thinks so,” the Light replied. “Her Hidden agent tracking the Fallen says they’re retreating from the shore. Something’s got them running for the hills.”

Geoff and Ryan looked at each other, and for a nanosecond, Geoff considered taking back what he’d said. Nobody had anticipated the Hive attack coming so soon. They were right here, and it’d spare so much run around.  Getting Michael and Ray all the way over here from, fuck, Geoff couldn’t even remember where they’d gone today. But what kind of a leader would he be if he didn’t follow something through? What kind of Guardian?

“Send a message to Ray and Michael. Tell them to get their asses over here pronto. Five minutes ago, if possible.” The Ghost enlarged its outer shell whilst Geoff spoke to Ryan.

“You should go back to the Tower,” he suggested. “Get Ikora up to speed. See if Eris knows anything else that might-”

“I know everything that might help you.”

The edge to Ryan’s voice made Geoff wonder if he understood maybe too well. Which, again, if Geoff had a stomach it would have dropped all the way to the ground. Ryan seemed to regret those words, his arms relaxed and his body shifted uncomfortably. He summoned his Ghost.

“Do not, under any circumstances, mess with anything inside of Rasputin,” Ryan warned. “Even if Omnigul has already fucked him up somehow. Just get in there, kill the Hive, and assess the damage.”

Geoff nodded. His Ghost finished with the transmission, told him Michael and Ray were on their way from Mars (fuck, of course they were on Mars) and then summoned his Sparrow. He straddled it, and with one last look over his shoulder just in time to see Ryan disappear, raced towards the Forgotten Shore.

* * *

“It’s fucking scary when you do that, dude.” Ray said, shuddering at Michael. Michael shrugged; kicking the brown dirt beneath them and watching it race away through the wind.

“You’ve got to admit, it’s kinda cool.”

“Climbing on top of a Legionary and ripping its head from its shoulders will never be cool. More like  _‘fucking creepy’_  with a side of  _‘don’t fucking throw that at me no Michael why.’_ ”

Michael shrugged again. “I ran out of ammo.”

“Yeah, okay,” Ray said, causally sniping at the Hobgoblins that had just appeared at the bottom of the hill. “You gonna grab this beacon?”

“Sure.” Michael said, kneeling down and extending a hand to play the transmission. As he pressed the button on it to open up the channel, the antenna receded, and Michael heard the voice of that prick from Dead Orbit again, using fucking poetry to ask for equipment from Cabal armour.

“I spoke to Gavin last night,” Michael said once the transmission ended. He explained further when Ray said nothing, “About Ryan, why we didn’t tell him anything.”

One of Ray’s bullets pierced a Harpie, and its high pitched screech echoed across the desert. “How’d he take it?”

“He’s pissed,” Michael stood back up again. “I can tell he is. He kinda gave us the benefit of the doubt, but, it still wasn’t fair.”

“Yeah.” Ray said, lining up another shot. He took it, his shoulder barely even juttering backwards. A Goblin exploded into tiny little pieces.

“I almost tore him a new one.”

“Oh?” Ray lowered his weapon then, looking at Michael to continue.

“I was tired. And angry. I nearly took it out on him, but…” Michael made a frustrated noise at the back of his throat and equipped his auto rifle. It’s range was okay, had nothing on Ice Breaker but it did the job as he layed into the Vex his Exo friend had missed. “I just got tired of fighting, you know? First Ryan, I didn’t want to start shit with Gavin too.”

Ray told Michael he did the right thing. Michael asked him if he really thought so, and the Hunter nodded his head. Then he promised not to tell Commander Zavala what a softy Michael was becoming.

Michael told Ray to shut the fuck up and summoned his Ghost, asking it to decrypt that last message for him. It told him to hold on a second. It enlarged its outer shell for a moment before snapping back into its normal state and motioning towards Ray, capturing his attention.

“Geoff needs you at the Forgotten Shore.”

“Me?” Ray put his sniper rifle on his back and looked at Michael, confused.

“Both of you. The Hive are sieging Rasputin.”

“Both of us? Isn’t Ryan with Geoff right now?” Ray asked.

“He’s requested both of you. Immediately.”

Michael told his Ghost to tell Geoff that they were on their way, and it dematerialised. Neither of them moved. Vex and Cabal shot at each other at the bottom of the hill; Hobgoblins and Goblins trying feebly to penetrate the Cabal defences. Legionaries roared at them whilst Centurions sprayed bullets at their mechanical feet.

“Weird.”

“Hmm?” Ray truly sounded like a piece of machinery when he hummed.

“Why the fuck is Geoff asking for us two if he’s got Ryan with him?” Michael wondered.

Geoff was prone to convenience. Michael had lost count of all the times he and the lads had received errands whilst on missions or patrols from Geoff.  More often than not, they were asked to scout something on a planet because Ikora had asked and Geoff couldn’t be fucked looking for himself if they were already there. In the Crucible, when competing in control, he’d be more likely to go to a neutralised zone than one that needed all the extra effort to be taken from the other team.  Michael didn’t mind it, because he knew that when push came to shove Geoff would go the extra mile.

“Maybe he’s still worried about Ryan?” Ray suggested. Michael scoffed, asking the Hunter when was Geoff not worried about one of them. Ray agreed, but said that Geoff had more reason to worry about Ryan right now.

Michael remembered when Ray’s Vex troubles had started. How Geoff had zeroed in on his fellow Exo throughout the whole ordeal. There wasn’t a lot that anyone else on the team could do for Ray, they were both Exo, they knew each other literally inside and out. Michael always supposed that Geoff was the only one who could understand just how hard it was for Ray to be… Taken over, like that.

A silent ride through the cosmos later, Michael and Ray touched down along the Forgotten Shore. The heavy rainfall pinged against their armour and produced waterfalls on their visors. Michael moved forward upon materialising but was stopped by Ray’s hand. The Exo equipped his sniper rifle and scoped the area. Michael asked him if there was any trouble.

“No. No trouble at all.”

“Alright. Let’s fucking go then.”

“No, Michael,” Ray put his rifle on his back again and gestured towards the beached ships from centuries ago. “I mean there’s nothing. No Fallen, no enemies. It’s deserted.”

Michael stepped tentatively towards the edge of the cliff and surveyed the area. Ray was right, nothing. No beeps and whistles of Shanks, no screams of Dregs or noises of conflict. Normally, a couple of Captains would stalk the ships with Vandals by their side, but Michael couldn’t see any movement.

He summoned his Ghost and asked it where Geoff was. It gave them directions and they headed down the slope of the cliff, following the pitiful remains of what used to be a great body of water. They kept their weapons raised as they followed the small stream just to be careful. Finally, they were lead to an upright derelict ship; heading up another hill usually crawling with Dregs, but now silent. Save for the Warlock rapidly tapping the steel he was leaning against.

Geoff stood at the top of a flight of stairs, the hood of what was left of the vessel protecting him from the downfall. Michael and Ray hurried along to meet him and get out of the rain. He told them that they had taken their fucking time.

“Sorry you called the two people on your squad who were all the way on Mars.” Ray protested, and Geoff asked why they were all the way out there. ‘Patrols and shit’ was Ray’s blunt answer, and Geoff scoffed.

“Try and stay closer next time, alright?”

“Closer to what?” Ray asked, offering nothing else to help Geoff give an answer. The two Exo’s stared each other down until Geoff said they had wasted enough time. Michael swallowed his questions,  _‘why the fuck didn’t you just bring Ryan with you then? Gavin and Jack are on the Moon, why go through all the trouble?’_  because Geoff was right, they had wasted enough time already.

Geoff equipped his scout rifle and led them down a couple of flights of stairs adorned by walls with peeling paint and rotting mould. As they descended, the fall of rain was slowly overtaken by music. But it wasn’t the light, springy symphony Michael normally heard when traversing the Forgotten Shore. This melody was slow, and dark, and sent a chill down his spine.

“So what’s the plan here?” Michael asked, bringing up the rear. These staircases didn’t seem to accommodate more than one person.

“There’s not a lot we can plan,” Geoff replied. “I suppose the main goal is just, make sure Rasputins okay. We have no idea what the interior is like, and we don’t know how many Hive are going to be in there. We have no idea what Omnigul might have up her sleeve.”

“I think killing her is a better goal.” Michael mumbled, expecting some sort of ‘shut-up-you-Titan’ remark. Instead there was a pause, and the heavy footfalls of metal boots hitting metal stairs were the only noise. Geoff didn’t stop walking, but turned his head to look over his shoulder.

“That’s not a bad idea Michael.”

“Oh?” The music grew louder.

“Ryan said not to mess with Rasputin even if Omnigul has already fucked him up, so the only other thing we can do is kill the thing causing trouble.”

“It’s not going to be that easy,” Ray piped up. “She has a habit of… Disappearing.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Geoff asked.

“When we went up against her in the Blast, we couldn’t touch her. She kept sending Hive after us, summoned portals from thin air for them to run through. When we killed them all, she just took off. Disappeared.”

“You think she’ll do that again?” Michael asked.

“We won’t let her.” Geoff replied.

They entered a room with a few pentagonal pieces of machinery. Some were open, exposing materials inside. Others were beat up, completely beyond use. Michael had no idea what the fuck they were, or what they were meant to do.  But he heard the music even clearer now. He told Ray and Geoff to hold up while he tried to remember what it meant, what Ryan had told him. But he supposed it didn’t matter, it was fairly obvious anyway. Rasputin was in trouble. 

“Where the fuck do we go now?” Ray asked, and Geoff said he didn’t know.

“Ryan and I spoke to Ikora this morning, she said to come down here to try and make that connection. Not a lot of people know about this place. That it’s an entrance to Rasputin, anyway.”

“Doesn’t look like one.” Michael said. Geoff agreed.

They stood in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments, waiting for something, anything.

“Come on, you fuck,” Michael said under his breath. “Let us help you.”

Geoff huffed and brought his Ghost out, asked it to scan the machinery to see if any of them would lead them to Rasputin.

It was almost as if the Last Warmind was waiting for a dramatic opportunity. Just then, one of the corrugated doors of the machinery swept upwards and outwards, revealing a small security entrance. Geoff’s Ghost said that that was probably the way in. Geoff told it to shut up.

“Ready boys?” Geoff reloaded his scout rifle.

“Yep.” Michael ignored the way the bass of the symphony gnawed at his gut like a bad omen.

“Three Guardians going into a Warmind’s head to kill enemies of which they have no idea how to actually kill?” Michael could practically hear Ray’s grin. “What could go wrong?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr - nerdy-kins.tumblr.com - for ah destiny au drabbles and other fake ah crew pieces that im still trying to decide whether or not I want to upload here. Stay tuned.


	8. Known Horizon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guardians don’t stop. There’s always something to fight, enemies to research, and comrades to argue with. Although the latter isn’t necessary, a certain Hunter seems to think so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.
> 
> (Chapters 1 to 8 are direct uploads from tumblr, so they'll all be going up at the same time. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be formatting the tumblr posts from then on - what with authors notes and such - so you'll just have to bear with me whilst I figure that out.)

The storm finally rolled in as Ryan cruised back to the Tower. His mind had played with the idea of staying in the Cosmodrome despite Geoff’s  _suggestion_ , but he gave that up eventually. He knew he’d just drive himself crazy waiting for word that the mission had gone successfully.

(Or thinking of all the ways it could go wrong.)

He’d obeyed Geoff’s order mostly to try and get away from the argumentative rut he had found himself in since this had all started. He’d been wound up so tight even before the argument with Michael. Butting heads with his teammate had finally snapped something inside of him.

Not that it was easy, submitting to Geoff’s wishes when they both knew that he should be on that mission right now. But it was for the best. And he knew it would make Geoff feel better. It was obvious to see the underlying tones of worry in the Exo. Maybe if this mission went without a hitch everyone would get back into their  _we can take on anything mindsets_. Ryan was beginning to miss that.

And, if he was honest with himself, he felt guilty. He remembered that moment of hesitation after he hauled Ray away from the Fist of Crota and the Hunter had told him to keep moving. It had dawned on him then that he could be right about everything, about Crota’s return, all of it – but it still wouldn’t help him keep his friends safe.

The rain hit the windows of his ship in obnoxiously large drops and he pulled up to get away from them. Settling above the murky clouds, he tried to think of something to do, anything other than just going back to the Tower and twiddling his thumbs. He counted the possibilities in his head. Patrols, collecting materials, looking for the thousandth goddamn time for anything he had missed amongst the Grimoire. He quickly dismissed them all. They were an excuse to waste time, and he wanted to be productive.

He _could_ go to Eris. There were things he hadn't asked her - felt like he couldn't. About her teammates, how they fell, the Hive monstrosities they fell  _to_. Ryan had turned to Eriana-3's research as a last resort.  _As a way out_ , he thought bitterly. But there was so much more he wanted to ask. Eriana spoke of the things Toland had told them about the Hive, about the very darkness itself. He wanted, needed, to know more.

Maybe with no one spying on them it’d be easier for Ryan to ask.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t at least tried to deter Eris from saying anything too strange, in an effort to make his team more open minded towards her guidance. He’d soon abandoned that in favour of just hearing what she had to say, Ray hanging silently on the balcony above them be damned.

Eris had been the one to spot him the first time. _Earwigs_  is what she had called them last night, and she had branded Ray something to the same effect too. Ryan was going to call Ray out on it until Geoff had cornered him and asked him to stop speaking with her. In retrospect he felt like an idiot for not piecing it together sooner.

Arguing with Michael had been the catalyst to Ryan’s understanding of what his teammates thought about Eris. And whilst he was glad it came sooner rather than later, he didn’t appreciate feeling the front of Michaels rage. It was normally reserved for enemies who got in the way or Gavin if he did the same. Which he supposed is why the Titan’s apology came as such a surprise, while still appreciated.

He thought about what Michael had told him,  _you have a right to be mad_ , which suggested that Michael knew what he and the others did was wrong. And that was nice. Not in a smug way either, just, relaxing after so much hidden turmoil had infected the group. And Michael seemed to understand. Which was a relief, with him asking Ryan about Eris’s cryptic message about the Speaker and-

“Oh.” Ryan said out loud as it dawned on him.

“What?” His Ghost asked, materialising.

“I know what I can do.” Ryan pulled the ship up and out of Earth’s atmosphere. 

“Didn’t Geoff tell you to-?”

“Geoff tells me a lot of things.” Ryan said as his ship rattled into warp.

* * *

‘Blades of Crota’ are what Eris had called them, and as one slammed its sword down between Gavin’s legs, he wondered why they didn’t have a more creative name.

He ceased his wondering when Jack yanked him by the cloak and glided into the air, depositing him on top of a sunken steel structure. Gavin landed on his arse with an  _oomph!_  and reminded himself to give Jack a bollocking -- at a time when Hive and Fallen weren’t currently competing for  _who could kill Guardians quickest._

Although, in the category of  _who could distract the Guardians with a stupid argument long enough to get them killed_ , Gavin knew he would win by a landslide.

“Dammit, Gavin!” Jack said through gritted teeth, equipping his rocket launcher and firing it into the assortment of enemies below them. It took out the Fallen and a few Acolytes, but the Blade of Crota continued its way towards them.

Gavin stood up, following suit and loading up Gjallarhon. With his exotic weapon ready to go he jumped into the air and targeted the Blade of Crota. Unfortunately, he didn’t feel as victorious as he normally did when the Knight exploded in a flurry of solar fire.

With a petulant rage still in his veins, Gavin hopped down from the structure immediately. Hitting the rocky surface of the Moon with a dull thud, he equipped his auto rifle and mowed down the last few Hive.

As the lunar dust settled, Gavin took a second to breathe. He felt Jack’s presence behind him. The Warlock asked him if he felt better. He barked out a laugh.

“Yeah.” Was his curt reply, and he made a move to summon his Sparrow but Jack stopped him with a hand on his arm.   
  
He’d only agreed to come to the Moon with Jack because he was still pissed. Michael had apologised and that was okay. He’d intended to go to Geoff but he could already see his leader beginning to focus himself on Ryan, so he let him be for now. Maybe he didn’t think it through enough. But when Jack had mentioned rifling through the Grimoire to refresh himself on Hive legends, the Warlock had gone on to remark how different this would be to the Vault of Glass.

“Whatever ‘this’ ends up being, anyway.” Jack had said.

Gavin had decided he’d had enough.

“I don’t see why not,” Gavin had shouted across the abandoned outpost, making Jack whirl around from where he had been scanning cracks in the Moon’s surface. “The Hellmouth is no different to the Vault of Glass.”

To that, Jack laughed dryly, which had made Gavin’s skin prickle.

“Who says we’ll have to go to the Hellmouth? Do you know where Crota is? Does anyone?”

“Maybe Eris does. Doesn’t matter though, does it? We find him, kill everything between us and him, kill him, jobs done. Easy.”

Jack had sighed and told Gavin it wasn’t going to be that simple. Gavin asked why and when Jack hadn’t offered up an immediate answer, continued talking.

“Exactly. No one knows do they? They don’t know just how hard it might to be so I don’t see why everyone is losing their bloody minds.”

“Seriously?” Jack had said then, crossing his arms. “You have no idea why everyone might be just a little bit more afraid than when we raided the Vault?”

Which loosely translated to  _don’t you fucking remember what happened to Ray?_  Gavin wouldn’t be deterred.

“Well no, no one tells me anything do they? They don’t trust my big mouth, apparently.”

Jack didn’t need to pry much further than that. After yelling about what Michael had said to him the night before, Jack had tried to apologise just like Michael had. Gavin wouldn’t have any of it.

Then they had just descended into a shouting match. Gavin playing the _oh woes me_  card and Jack telling him to stop being so selfish, Gavin finding that ironic and Jack telling him to open his eyes to the bigger picture.

They went on in circles for a while and of course, as their argument transpired, a Blade of Crota had heard them. The Hive Knight sought to put an end to their bickering. It had damn near taken Jack’s head off, as Gavin had only seen it at the last possible second.

“I’m sorry,” Jack was saying then, pulling Gavin back into the present. Gavin turned to face him as he apologised for keeping their worries from him, for not sharing information. For making him frightened.

“I wasn’t frightened.” Gavin said indignantly.

“It’s okay,” Jack said, and Gavin hated how easily he could read people like a book. “I get it. When we killed Atheon we felt invincible. We could take on the whole god damn world. But you’re not going to be able to just, fire Gjallarhorn at Crota and make this all go away. It’s more complicated than that.”

“I know that,” Gavin muttered. A heavy weight settled on his chest.

“Everyone’s scared, Gavin. I am. I have no fucking clue what we’re getting ourselves into, but we have to do it. It may be more difficult, there’s gonna be a lot of obstacles in the way but we’ve done it in the past so. Who’s to say if we trust each other we can’t do it again.”

“Brilliant speech, Jack,” Gavin remarked, hoping he masked his sarcasm well. “You could give the Speaker a run for his money.”

Jack scoffed and told him never to suggest that in front of Ikora Rey. Gavin said that that wasn’t a bad idea and Jack shoved him, asking if he fancied killing a few more Hive before they went back to the Tower. Gavin was always up for it.

There was only one marginally recoverable outpost on the Moon. Gavin and Jack traversed through the skinny rock formation out of it and turned to make their way towards the entrance of the Hellmouth. Gavin hoped the tension between them would just wear off.

They were nearing a Hive shrine close to where the lunar creatures dwelled when Jack pulled on Gavin’s elbow. He directed Gavin's gaze towards a balcony normally protected by a Wizard.

“Oh!” Gavin said in surprise. “What’s Ryan doing here?”

Gavin observed, his Awoken eyes being much better than Jack’s human ones,  _(it’s only a fact, Jack – one you feel the need to bring up constantly! – you humans are cute when you’re angry – asshole.)_  allowing him to see the other Warlock chatting to his Ghost, who then moved up towards the gaping pit of the Hellmouth and scanned the green effervescent particles. They moved towards their teammate.

“Ryan!” Gavin yelled as he jumped off of a jagged rock and descended onto the balcony, hopping slightly to soften his landing. Ryan turned sharply, and upon seeing the small Hunter floating towards him, holstered his weapon.

“Hey Gav,” He said, nodding over Gavin’s shoulder. “Jack. How’s it going guys?”

Jack had elected to walk down through the rocks rather than jump over them. Gavin gave him a chance to catch up before answering Ryan’s question.

“Going good. Just killed a Blade of Crota, which was pretty exciting.”

“Exciting,” Jack deadpanned, and Ryan asked where.

“At the outpost, up there?” rather than turn his body and point, Gavin wrapped his arm around his torso and pointed behind him. Ryan nodded.

“Matches reports. I take it you took it down okay?”

Gavin and Jack casted an uneasy glance at each other, and seemed to simultaneously agree to avoid the question.  

“Yeah. What’re you scanning now?” Jack asked with a slight mocking in his tone, and Ryan took a second before answering.

“Just – Well. I was thinking about what we’re actually doing here. The end goal, so to speak,” Ryan looked up at his Ghost, checking its progress. “Crota. He’s our mission.”

The déjà vu Gavin experienced made him clench his jaw. “Yeah, getting just a little bit ahead of yourself there Ry.”

“Ah, I know.”

“I mean, we haven’t even found Omnigulf yet and you’re looking for Crota?”

Jack chuckled. “Just Omnigul, Gav.”

“Oh,” Ryan crossed his arms. “I guess Geoff didn’t get a chance to shoot you a message?”

“About what?”

“They found her?” Jack said quizzically, moving towards his fellow Warlock. “The Hive are sieging Rasputin, already?”

“I know, surprised us too,” Ryan recounted how unsuccessfully linking up with Rasputin had gone. And how when they found themselves at the Skywatch, Geoff had been alerted to Fallen movement. Suggesting that the Hive had infiltrated Rasputins mind and driven the scavengers away.

“So, wait, why are you here then?”

When a silence fell upon them, Gavin knew it was the wrong thing to ask. Well, maybe not the wrong thing, just. Not the best thing to ask in that moment.

“Weren’t you with Geoff? Why didn’t you go with him?” Gavin probed further, trying to keep a cap on his impatience.

“Ray and Michael are on the mission with him,” was all Ryan offered up after what felt like forever.

With Jack’s lack of questioning Gavin was beginning to feel like he was missing something obvious. He racked his brain trying to figure it out, and when it landed on the memory of what Michael had said to him the night before, he understood.

“Did he bench you just ‘cause he was scared?” Gavin said and Jack muttered  _goddamit_  under his breath.

Ryan only shrugged his shoulders. “I guess. Although he wasn’t exactly inclined to specify. All he told me was that Ray and Michael were better suited for the mission.”

“Which they kind of are, Ryan-”

“Bollocks,” Gavin cut Jack off. “There’s no way any of them know as much as he does about Rasputin. Not even combined.”

“Gavin, its fine.”  Ryan said, looking at his Ghost as though willing it to come back down to him.

“How is it fine, Ryan? Where’d all this secrecy come from all of a sudden? Why can’t we just – bloody – talk to each other!”

“Geoff’s just worried about me. It’s with good reason that he-”

“Bollocks.”

“Gavin.” Jack snapped. “You remember what I said? About being scared?”

They may have been arguing a few minutes prior to this, but Gavin knew when Jack was genuinely angry. There was a human saying that went something like, never incur the wrath of a gentle man. Gavin was about ninety-five percent sure Jack was the reason that phrase existed.

“Well, Geoff is fucking terrified right now,” he continued in a level voice, gesturing to himself and Ryan. “We grew as Guardians with tales of Toland the Shattered and Osiris. Warlocks who the Vanguard banished for getting too close to the Darkness. Geoff had to go through watching Ray literally get taken over by the Vex, constantly worrying that he was going to get kicked out of the city, or even worse become one of them. You don’t get how difficult it is for him, he’s always looking out for us all that he forgets to watch out for himself. So of course he’s going to lie to make it easier – we’re not stupid! We should know.”

“Well that’s what Ray did, innit?” Gavin was yelling again. “Kept it a secret from us until he damn near killed Michael, you want that to happen again? Don’t bloody have a go at me when this is exactly what happened the last time we kept secrets from each other! And don’t-!”

“Okay, enough,” Ryan silenced both of them. “We need to stop. All of us, jumping down each other’s throats.”

“But Ryan-!”

“I’ve made my peace with it, Gav! There are bigger things at stake here! How can we fight a Hive God Knight if we can’t even stop fighting each other?” Ryan’s Ghost floated gently downwards towards them but he continued despite its presence.

“We can do this, I know we can. I appreciate the thought Gav but bitching about Geoff behind his back won’t help anything. From here on out we have to work together. Which means no more getting pissy at the small details, no more arguing. And yeah, maybe no more sugar-coating the truth but Jack’s right, Geoff had a good reason. If that’s anyone’s problem to deal with, it’s mine.”

“I’m not – I didn’t-”

“And goddamit, no more throwing Ray around like he’s an event and not a person! You wouldn’t be saying this shit if he was here, would you?”

And that made the heavy weight on Gavin’s chest seep into his bones. He didn’t really know what to say then, all energy for a fight driven out of him by Ryan’s words.

“From here on out,” Ryan repeated to his teammates who had both gone silent. “Okay?”

After a couple more beats of silence, with a heavy sigh, Jack promised to heed Ryan’s words. As though exhausted from the leadership he had just implemented Ryan’s shoulders sagged. They both looked at Gavin.

Ryan was right, and Gavin found himself frustrated by the simplicity of the fact. He wanted to talk and rant and maybe yell some more but that was it. He could accept it, supposed he had to.

“From here on out,” he said, and apologised to them both. They accepted his apology and he laughed.

“So in the last two days we’ve all been right bellends, haven’t we? I think Ryan’s the only one who hasn’t had to apologise for anything.”

Ryan laughed and corrected him, telling them of his own conversation with Michael the night before.

“But you didn’t need to apologise, Ry.” Gavin told him feebly.

“Michael said the same.” Ryan recounted, and his Ghost whirled its outer-casing impatiently. He decided to move on, asking it what it had found.

“Wait, catch us up to speed first,” Jack interrupted and Gavin thought that Ryan’s Ghost looked like it wished it had a laser beam. “What’re you thinking? Why are you scanning this place, exactly?”

“There are theories that Crota is hiding in a threshold realm between ours and one which houses the Hive’s Gods.” Ryan’s Ghost explained and Gavin smirked at its outburst, “A realm in which he is absolutely invincible. Ryan thinks that the Hive are trying to awaken his soul in this realm, so that he can cross the bridge between the two, so to speak.”

“Awaken his soul?”

“How much do you know about The Disaster, Gav?” Ryan asked and Gavin shrugged. He only knew what Ryan had told him in passing. He said as much, but Ryan encouraged him to be specific.

“Bunch of Guardians went to the Moon to try and reclaim it. Crota killed them all. Fucked up outer-planetary travel for the rest of us.”

“It wasn’t just a ‘bunch of Guardians’ Gav, it was an army,” Ryan explained. “What was regarded as the strongest and bravest army of Guardians in history. And Crota was merely a shadow in this realm when he murdered thousands of them. Eris’s teammate, another Warlock, Eriana-3, fought in the Disaster. She captured and tortured a Wizard for information. Got Crota’s name and did her own research from there, and that’s what I’ve been going off of.”

“You didn’t just ask Eris about it?”

“I – I can’t.”

Gavin wanted to ask what the hell her and Ryan even spoke about then, but that air of  _wrong thing to say Gav_  encroached them, and he sought to leave it. Ryan continued.

“For reasons unknown he can’t pass directly into our realm – or, reality is probably a more accurate term. But the Hive have his soul, Eriana’s writings are sure of it. I don’t know how or why, but if they awaken it he might just be able to get to take that final step. When Omnigul surfaced on Earth it was a sign that the Hive were paving the way, getting things ready for their masters return.”

“Wait, wait,” Jack accentuated his plea with his hands. “So the Hive have Crota’s soul? Shouldn’t we be focusing on that part?”

“Well, that’s one of the things I’ve been trying to tell you,” Ryan’s Ghost said, floating gently closer to Jack and Gavin. “There’s a lot of Darkness surging down in the Hellmouth, more so than usual. Definitely a ritual. They’re going to wake Crota’s soul, and soon.”

“We’ll need to destroy it.” Jack said.

“But, wait,” Gavin wished he could take his helmet off and rub his temples. “What I'm hearing is even when we destroy Crota’s soul, he’ll still technically be alive – just in another dimension?”

“That is correct,” Ryan’s Ghost confirmed. “And, you should probably hang onto that confidence Gavin. The ritual is further in the Hellmouth than anyone on this team has ever been.”

“Okay. So, we destroy Crota’s soul to stop him from getting into this realm.” Jack began.

“Then we go looking for the big bastard himself, we get into  _his_  realm somehow-”

“No one can get into that realm,” Ryan’s Ghost cut Gavin off. “Ryan wants to see if we can make it far enough into the Hellmouth that we draw Crota to us.”

“It’s our only option,” Ryan said. “I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but if we can make enough noise as far down there as we can, maybe he’ll come to us. But it’s like I said, I’m not even sure if-”

“Wait, I’m receiving a… Strange.” Ryan’s Ghost said, enlarging its outer shell. The blue sphere of light rotated the white pieces of its body as the grey core listened to the message. Ryan asked what was so strange, but the Ghost didn’t answer. Something gnawed at Gavin’s stomach as it snapped back into place so sharply it shook itself and spoke rapidly.

“Geoff-6 is hurt. Bad. Michael and Ray-42 are taking him to the Tower right now.”

“What?” Gavin stepped up to the Ghost, his stomach now twisting in knots. “What do you mean, hurt? What kind of hurt?”

“I’m not sure. I received two separate messages almost at the same time. One from Michael and one from Geoff. No. Geoff’s Ghost. They’re both heavily distorted, but, I managed to piece them together to figure out what was going on.”

“Why is Geoff’s Ghost sending you a message?” Jack asked, but then shook his head, “Wait, what did it – they, say exactly?”

Gavin wondered if it even mattered, but couldn’t help his own curiosity as he kept his mouth shut and let the Ghost speak.

“Michaels was straight forward. Geoff’s hurt, we’re taking him to the Tower, but it was laced with distortion, something played over the top of it. Music.”

“Rasputin.” Ryan said then, his Ghost nodding slightly. “Makes sense that it’d be difficult to send a message from inside the Warminds head. Michael couldn’t have known.”

“And what about Geoff’s Ghost?” Gavin was asking then, slow and deliberate. “Why did it send a message to you?”

“It sounded more like a distress signal. Judging by the trajectory of the message it was intended for the entire fireteam. But it only reached me. Ergo, Ryan.”

“Distress signal?”

“Geoff’s Ghost has had to take its Guardians physical body. Keep it locked inside itself to protect it from further harm.”

“Jesus,” Jack breathed.

“And, Ryan,” the Ghost swivelled to face its Guardian. “I traced the signal back. Geoff’s Ghost, it’s… In a bad way. I’m struggling to detect its Light.”

For all the fear that then injected the three of them, the Ghost may as well of told them that Geoff was dead.

“Take us to orbit,” Ryan demanded of his Ghost. “All of us. Set a course for the Tower. Right now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr - nerdy-kins.tumblr.com - for ah destiny au drabbles and other fake ah crew pieces that im still trying to decide whether or not I want to upload here. Stay tuned.


	9. Siege of the Warmind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was a lull in the fight then, and Michael turned to the bay windows where Omnigul watched. 
> 
> “Is that all you’ve got?!” he yelled. 
> 
> Whether you were an abomination from another race or not, you knew what it meant when someone challenged you. And with a twist of her clawed hand, out of Omniguls portals came Wizards, Hallowed Knights, and of course, the fucking footsoldiers. 
> 
> “You had to fucking ask,” Ray jeered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.

Thralls and Acolytes were the footsoldiers of the Hive. Some were tougher than others, that much was true, but otherwise they were sickeningly easy to take down. Which is why Ray thought it was a bitch move on Omniguls part to just hide in a separate room whilst sending wave after wave of said footsoldiers at the three of them through her portals.

“This is just getting annoying,” Ray said as he grabbed a throwing knife from a dead Thralls face. Michael concurred and Geoff told them to stop being so cocky.

“We still can’t get to her, assholes. We could be here a while.”

Rasputin’s mind was filled with steel corridor after steel corridor, some with high ceilings, and some adorned in patterns of corrugated metal. The three of them picked up the pace upon entering the Warmind and jogged through them. There was only one path really, no deviation to be had which lead them right into the hands of Omniguls army.

Cutting down the Hive in their way was a challenge, but not exactly challenging. They followed a small flight of wide stairs up to a sectioned off room with two side shutters and great bay windows, allowing them to see into the adjoining area. As they walked through one of the shutters, they were finally in Rasputin’s control room, his mind. More of the machinery they had seen outside adorned the hexagonal walls of the room, cobwebs and dust blanketing them. Raw steel machinery looked down upon them.

Ray wondered how technology that looked as ancient as it was housed one of the most feared AI’s in history. A cone of wires and tubes and fuck knows what other sort of technology sat in the middle of the room, connected to the floor and ceiling, eerily mirroring the rock formations in the Grotto’s. Those tubes and wires went on to fan out of the cone and connect to the many corners of the room. A great obstruction of his line of sight, Ray had thought bitterly.

The room was far too small for combat, and the aforementioned eyesore was going to be a hindrance to Ice Breaker.  An ominous feeling settled itself in his carbon-fibre gut. Ray knew that if they were overwhelmed by the Hive in a room that favoured height over width, it would be a hard fight to come unscathed from. 

But thus far the battle had just been irritating. Geoff and Michael had moved to the squarely mounted control panel and Ray had moved away to flank them, and as the Warmind woke up, Omnigul had appeared. She came through one of her sickly portals right above Geoff and Michael. Ray’s warning shout was lost in her menacing laughter and that screeching sound he remembered from the Grotto’s. Although they got a few good hits on her (even though she’d sent a handful of Thralls at them) she’d swiftly transported herself into the side room they had entered through. Ray had heard the shutters close and her laugh turn into a screech. 

There was a lull in the fight then, and Michael turned to the bay windows where Omnigul watched.

“Is that all you’ve got?!” he yelled.

Whether you were an abomination from another race or not, you knew what it meant when someone challenged you. And with a twist of her clawed hand, out of Omniguls portals came Wizards, Hallowed Knights, and of course, the fucking footsoldiers.

“You had to fucking ask,” Ray jeered, throwing a grenade into the barrage of enemies whilst he had the chance to get them all at once. His motion activated sticky exploded immediately. Few Acolytes and Thrall remained which Geoff graciously took care of whilst Michael began work on the Hallowed Knight. Which left the Wizards to Ray.

Only, they weren’t Wizards. Not in the sense he knew. There were two of them, one stayed where it was whilst the other floated away from the fight.

Ray looked down the scope of his sniper rifle and hesitated. The Wizard was twisting and curling its arms, focusing its attention on the ground below it, pivoting on one point. Ray watched hive runes encased in a circle of dark light appear on the steel floor. They breathed blue and green before engraving themselves with a _hiss_ , green hellfire rising up from them in finality.

A horrible sense of curiosity settled in Ray’s mind and he swept his scope over to the other Wizard, who was doing the same in one of the corners of the room.

Its friend must not have liked the way Ray looked at it. He felt the heat of the blasts before they hit him, but it didn’t make them hurt any less. The Wizard was difficult to take out, Ray dodged and weaved against its attacks but kept being forced to jump into the air and find a better position when he looked down his scope and couldn’t see the fucking thing anymore. And he was all too aware of the other Wizard going about its business, littering the place with more runes. Ray didn’t have time to think about what their purpose was.

Michael was yelling a steady stream of obscenities as the Knights gave him hell. As Ray jumped to dodge the pulse shots one of the Wizards was firing at him, he caught Geoff out of the corner of his eye settle upon the Hive runes scribed into the ground.

“Geoff, don’t-!”

His leader screamed as the circle pulsed neon green for a second, pleased by the offering. Geoff stumbled away from it and fell against the ground, hard. Michael made a move towards him but he still had one Knight left to kill. Ray reminded him as much.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!”

“Take care of the Hive first, she’s gonna have to call more in anyway, we can use that!”

Michael silently did as Ray told him, switching to Thunderlord and laying into the Knight whilst Ray settled himself and resolved to kill one of the Wizards.

He took cover partially behind the controls and fired four shots at a Wizard carving more runes into the floor. He waited for Ice Breaker to generate more bullets, taking advantage of the Wizard’s preoccupation with claiming as much of the room as possible, and with two more bullets it went down, dissolving into a pile of rotting body parts.

Ray called Michael for help, knowing that with the help of his exotic machine gun Michael should have rinsed the Knight by now. His suspicions were confirmed as the other Wizard, who had seen its friend fall and then started floating towards Ray before taking aim, started reeling from the heavy duty bullets Michael was firing at it.

Ray waited, peering through his scope until the Wizards shield disappeared. Ice Breaker shot twice and Ray didn’t stop to watch the Wizard go down.

Michael had made his way over to Geoff, and Ray ran over, glancing up at Omnigul. 

“We won’t have long,” Ray told them, tearing his gaze away from the Will of Crota.

Michael was saying Geoff’s name over and over again, trying to gauge the damage done to him. Eventually Geoff grunted and sat up, holding onto Michaels shoulder for support.

“Don’t step on the green things,” he said, and Ray breathed out a laugh.

Geoff stood up then right as the portals brought more Hive. And to add to Ray’s growing level of annoyance, Omnigul sent the same enemies after them. Geoff shook off a worrying glance from Michael and reloaded his scout rifle, and they began the same song and dance.

Michael seemed to have hit a jackpot and found more heavy ammo. He was done with the Hallowed Knights much quicker this time, and coordinated with Ray to take the Wizards shields down so that Ice Breaker could finish them off.

To any other Guardian, Ray supposed, it would seem planned, the way he and Michael were moving fluidly around each other whilst attacking the Exalted Hive. Ray had a way with the landscape of a fight; he knew where to go, where to attack from and where to take cover. Michael would follow his lead almost seamlessly, whilst hitting their enemy where it hurt the most. Ray would follow Michaels lead in that sense, and they played off of each other in a way that looked effortless, whilst barely speaking. It almost made Ray think they could win this fight.

“You pricks could’ve left me something better.” Geoff said as he finished off the last Acolyte and turned to watch Ray pre-emptively reload Ice Breaker after using the full clip on the Wizards.

“Should’ve hurried it along, old man.” Michael jested, looking at Thunderlord. His shoulders sagged. Ray knew what that meant, their lucky streak may be over.

“I’m injured, you ass.” Geoff practically whined, the rest of his complaint drowned out by the sound of Omnigul’s high pitched laughter. Ray watched her flick her gnarled hand to summon a portal. In their confidence, they all moved closer towards it. Ray offered up the Wizards to Geoff, and his leader laughed dryly in response. It was drowned out by the shaking roar of an Exalted Ogre.

The three Guardians scrambled behind cover as the Ogre blasted them with a jettison of starfire from its face. Ray lunged his whole body and just managed to get himself behind one of the pentagonal pieces of machinery matching the one they had entered through.  It was at an awkward angle, and some of the starfire brushed against his knee, leaving a tear in his lightweight armour that singed around the edges. Michael had been pushed to the far side of the room opposite Ray, Geoff skidding towards the controls and just managing to dive behind them as the Hive monstrosity opened fire on him.

The Ogre took up the majority of the room, crouching low to the floor. It didn’t have far to go, but neither did they. He heard rapid fire shots, about five or six of them before Michael cursed loudly and declared himself out of heavy-ammo. Then the Ogre focused itself on the Titan.

“Fuckin’ Thralls too?!” Michael yelled as Ray used his scope to find his friend, and then the Thralls running after him. He told Geoff to get the Ogres attention while he helped Michael out, firing at the Thralls, taking them down quickly whilst Geoff unloaded a whole clip into the Ogre’s face. The giant creature roared at Geoff and fired again. Omnigul screeched and laughed.

There was a flash of something, inside Ray, and all he wanted to do was fucking rip Omniguls vocal chords out. It wasn’t irritation anymore, it was anger, real and raw and all he wanted to do was _kill, destroy, kill-_

He loaded up his rocket launcher and skidded closer to the Ogre. On one knee he fired two rockets in quick succession, and the Ogre turned away from Geoff and roared again, shaking the room. Geoff took the distraction as a chance to load up his own machine gun, and as Ray ducked back behind cover, fired again.

“More Hive are coming!” Michael yelled as the portals sounded out. And the same Hive came through as before, to which Geoff cursed loudly.

“Michael, get the ones that just came out of the portal _and fast!_ ” Geoff barked out and Michael moved immediately. “Ray, you and I are gonna take this bastard out, okay?”

“You got it.”

Ray prioritised Ice Breaker, tried to make critical hits in the Ogre’s stomach that had it doubling over in pain every time his bullets sank into its flesh. Every time the Ogre shook with pain, covering its stomach, Ray would take a couple of shots at its bulging face. It was risky, in a room like this suddenly overflowing with Hive and slowly turning into a glorified and more deadly game of the floor is lava, but Ray knew it was probably their best option. Better, in his mind, to do mass damage every time you did hit your enemy than hit it constantly and waste time.

On more than one occasion found himself telling Geoff to distract the Ogre whilst he moved into a better position, taking longer than normal whilst having to dodge the Knights that Michael had gotten into fist fights with, and the Hive Runes decorating the floor. With Geoff injured, there was more pressure to get where he needed to be quickly so that Geoff wasn’t taking the full force of the Ogre’s attack.

He was jumping into the air, trying to see if he could land on one of the railings when one of the Wizards blasts knocked him down. He landed on his knees and let out a frustrated grunt. He grabbed his rocket launcher in his rage but cursed himself when he realised there was no ammo in the fucking thing. But he didn’t want to switch back to Ice Breaker; he let the annoyance and the anger of the situation engulf him as he determinedly reloaded the launcher, not seeing the Wizard that was floating towards him.

He looked up just long enough to see the Wizard leering down at him, the creature far too close for him to fire and not get caught in the blast. He processed just how fucked he was for what felt like minutes encased in a few milliseconds.

The Wizards whole body juttered, the rotting grin on its face flipped as it turned to absorb the bullets Geoff was firing at it. Ray used the distraction to get back to reloading his rocket launcher, and Geoff’s metallic cry coupled with his Ghost telling him “Guardian down,” was the only thing that brought him out of his animosity.

“Guardian Down.”

“Guardian-”

“Yeah, I got it!” Ray yelled, already sensing that Geoff had gone down, feeling that same pull he experienced when Ryan ‘died’ in the Grottos. But suddenly the feeling got worse, and panicky, and Ray felt like he couldn’t breathe-

“Geoff!” Michael yelled, feeling the same thing Ray had and using his shotgun to blow away the Knight swiping at Geoff’s Ghost.

After seeing that Michael had managed to kill every other Hive soldier, leaving only the Ogre and a handful of new runes on the floor, Ray glanced over at them. Just in time to watch Geoff’s Ghost whir once, twice, and then flicker and fall to the floor. Geoff’s body disappeared. Time seemed to stop after that. Omnigul laughed, high pitched and menacing and it snapped Ray out of his brief stupor.

“Ray, get over here!”

Ray told Michael to give him a second and aimed his sniper rifle at the Ogre. He hit it in the gut three times, and as it keeled over and roared in pain, ran towards his team. He got close to the Titan, seeing that Michaels Ghost was scanning their leaders floored Ghost. 

“Get close.”

“Michael, be careful.”

Michael hadn’t practiced putting up a Ward of Dawn as much as Ray would have liked in order to be okay with what the Titan was about to do. But they didn’t have much of a choice at this point.

Michael holstered his auto rifle and lined his feet up with his shoulders. Then he took a deep breath and flung his arms out to the sides, open palmed, and with the gesture a purple ball of light rose from his core, rising quickly and encasing them. Ray felt Michael’s Light pool at his feet in wispy orbs.

He got down on his knees next to Geoff’s Ghost as Michael sporadically left the shield to fire at the Ogre.

“He’s not dead,” Michaels Ghost told him, shining a blue light onto it to assess the damage. “But after it preserved Geoff’s body, the Ghost sent a message. I don’t know where it went.”

“Why would it do that?” Ray asked, ignoring Michaels cursing and the roar of the Ogre.

Ray took a look at Geoff’s Ghost. It twitched every now and then, which gave him a sick sense of hope.

“It’s strange. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Geoff must’ve made an arrangement with it should this happen.”

Ray let out a shuddering breath. Of course Geoff would have a break in case of death plan set up -- only it wasn’t in case of death, Ray told himself. Although.

“He’s not dead.” Ray stated, and Michael Ghost looked at him.

“He’s not dead,” The Ghost repeated. Then it scanned Geoff’s Ghost more vigorously, whirring getting faster until Geoff’s Ghost levitated a few inches and then disappeared.

“I have him,” Michaels Ghost assured both of them, dematerialising in order to link up with its Guardian again. “But we need to get him to the Tower, and fast.”

“This fucker’s almost dead,” Ray could feel the venom in Michael’s voice. “And this shield won’t last much longer. Let’s light him the fuck up.”

Ray looked towards the Ogre, groaning and careening sideways but still an intent to kill in its snarled face. Then he looked to Omnigul, and felt that urge to kill and destroy singing across his metal skin like a wildfire. As the Ward of Dawn dissipated, Ray reached out for the orbs of Light from it, felt the solar warmth of his golden gun on his fingertips.

“She’s next.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there! For anyone who doesn't follow me on tumblr -- nerdy-kins.tumblr.com -- or just doesn't know, I tend to write this series a chapter ahead of myself. Which means that the next chapter is technically already written, but won't be uploaded until i've finished writing the next next chapter, sound good? So I hope you liked this chapter that's been sitting around for a while, and I promise the next one will go up before The Taken King drops on the 15th. All those cinematics and trailers managed to ignite some inspiration and I seriously cant wait to upload the next one because of it. Thank you for reading!


	10. A Touch of Malice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geoff goes through a harrowing experience whilst trapped inside of his own Ghost, but his teammates are lost as to how to help him. Until they turn to the last person they thought they would for aid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH Destiny AU is by madkingray on tumblr, heavily inspired by their headcanons and writing.
> 
> This piece of work is also dedicated to mrpinstripesuit on tumblr for their endlessly inspiring and gorgeous drawings not only of the au, but in general.

Dying never got any easier. It was worse still that the sensation was so goddamn difficult to describe. That being said, who exactly did any Guardian have to talk to about it? Other Guardians maybe, of course they knew unquestionably what it felt like and how horrible it was. And it was horrible. Guardians who said otherwise, said they were ‘used to it’ were either lying or trying to prove something -- to the Speaker, to their Vanguard mentor, the Traveller, themselves.

The worst part, Geoff had always maintained, was the uncertainty of coming back. Light was their life force. It kept them strong, kept them agile and alert. Without it, they were lost. Without it, their Ghost’s couldn’t revive them should they fall to the enemy.

Without it, they were basically fucked.

Which is exactly how Geoff was feeling right now.

He tried not to think about it too much, tried not to place himself or his mind. They weren’t separated but they weren’t together either.  He’d done this enough times to know how to handle it. He felt tears, little rips in this realm (what could hardly be called one) left behind every time the Light had been ripped from him, and the largest one he actively ignored.

But he felt dark and cold and nowhere and everywhere all at once, and with the fear setting in he decided to indulge in the memory. Just a little bit, just to have something familiar that didn’t scare the shit out of him -- an anchor. He fell into it, tentatively.

When he first became a Guardian, Geoff thought there was something wrong with him. He couldn’t remember anything before, before a little Ghost brought him back and told him to get up. They had work to do. He had died, yes, but he’s alive now. And the last remaining city needed him.

Which was fine and all, he couldn’t exactly complain about being alive once more. The problem was, he felt broken. His mind at least, the one built by human hands couldn’t remember a god damn thing before. He was a machine, made for a purpose that he didn’t know and outside of his Guardian duties, he was obsolete.

He thought he was the only one until Ikora Rey gently told him that it was okay. Other Exos experienced the same thing, it was normal. But he was a Guardian now, maybe he had been before. There was no true way to know, she assured him.

But he wanted to know. He needed to know.

So away from the Tower, from his mentor Ikora, from the other Warlocks who would judge him and the Exos who would tell him to let it go, he found a way.

The Crucible gave birth to the Thanatonauts, Warlocks who believed they could find secrets in death. What secrets Geoff never got a straight goddamn answer to, fucking Warlocks after all, but he found some who claimed the practice helped them understand who they were before they died. And it wasn’t that difficult to learn how.

But he became reckless. Unbound and wavering from the Light he would die. And die. And die. And each time something inside of him would rip and he’d feel the sun on his metal skin, the hands on his back urging him into the shade. A face he couldn’t make out, he could never make out that was smiling and complaining but not meaning it, never meaning it. He felt flesh against his fingertips as he was pulled back into living by his Ghost. Then he’d try again, consumed with desperate curiosity.

But one time, the last time, he died and welcomed the Darkness with such vigour that he felt himself split into a thousand tiny pieces. His Ghosts voice faded away from him as he was pulled into something else entirely. Not a place, or a time, but an event. He saw the Light blooming across blackened skies, he saw constellations and heartbeats being born in front of his eyes. He was with the Traveller, giving hope and creation and life to the universe. He watched Venus turn from a barren wasteland into a green utopia, great cities erupted before him on Mars and humans lived and thrived and learned.

But what he saw born in the Light, he could do nothing but watch the Darkness chase after. He saw it consume and take from the Light, watched it breathe new life into what was once bright and brilliant. There was a black and a white in this realm and Geoff watched as the Dark took from the Light and the Light fought hard to create and survive and _be_ all at once against the shadows claiming everything they could seep into.

Then he saw the birth of the first Guardians, watched their heartbeats blossom and grow with the Light. And he tried to hold onto it, to the Light, to the Guardians the Darkness claimed so easily. He tried to make them stronger, but the Darkness grew in strength too. He tried to protect them himself, he gave up his mind, his soul, his own Light to shield them but the Darkness seethed and pulled and pulled and finally his protection gave way to the Dark.

Geoff wasn’t with the Traveller, he _was_ the Traveller, and he’d never felt so powerless.

Then his Ghost revived him, to the tune of _what happened, are you okay, Geoff it’s been a month and Ikora has people looking for you_ , but he didn’t want to speak. He didn’t want to talk, or move for that matter. He willed himself to return to the Tower, at the incessant urging of his Ghost. When he eventually did, he ran to his quarters and lay curled up on his side, refusing to power down for days.

He felt himself pull out of that memory then, back to the unquestionable abyss of what was essentially death. _Don’t think about it_ , he quietly chastised himself.

But something yanked, for a second, coaxing him back. He felt no danger, so he didn’t resist.

He was pulled across a constellation, stars raced by him and turned into thin blurred lines in his vision. He closed his eyes against the brightness, but something persisted in his chest that made him want to open them again, or he’d miss it.

He didn’t even have a chance to think _or miss what?_ before the chaos and destruction appeared in front of his eyes.

Wide, diamond shaped ships – Geoff wanted to call them fortresses, foreboding and unconquerable – caught his eye immediately. They stretched out like tombships, and Geoff realised that yes, they must be the Hive’s creation. Impossibly black and jagged along every surface, Darkness practically pouring out of them. It was a testament to their size that he could still see them wholly, even as the Reefs derringers whizzed elegantly by them, skilfully dodging the rocks that made up Saturn’s rings. They shot at the smaller Hive ships until they broke in half, exploding in on themselves and crumbling away from the chaos.

Geoff saw, amidst the battle the Hive ship that no doubt lead the charge. Although, no. The ship stayed stationary, impossibly huge to Geoff’s Exo eyes and somehow even more frightening than any Hive tombship or secondary ships clustered around it. But it was still. Not moving against the Queen’s ships who were attacking ferociously.

The Queen had sent her forces to attack the Hive, then. Before Geoff could process just how out of place that was for the Awoken, a massive Ketch interrupted his view.

He paddled backwards, watching the giant Fallen ship curve ever so slightly in front of him and towards the battle. With his new position he could take in the scene better. Looking again, a fleet of Ketch’s stretched out before him, decked in the colours and the crest of the Queen of the Awoken. He watched the fleet and the Harbingers move ever closer towards the main ship, so large that the asteroids of Saturn’s belt had moved to accommodate its presence.

He watched the front of the Ketch then, as a long string of what Geoff could only describe as power weaved its way into something tangible. When fully formed, the line broke into spheres that pulled away from the fleet of Fallen ships. They dodged and rolled around any incoming danger and Geoff, not even to his own surprise, remained confused until he realised they were heading straight for the main Hive ship.

They exploded on impact, and left barely even a scratch on the Hive’s ship.

So the Queen hadn’t just sent her forces after this threat. She wanted whatever Hive monster was here dead by her hand.

Geoff felt content to leave this memory now, although he didn’t want to call it that. At the very least it wasn’t _his_ memory, he was sure of it. He wasn’t curious enough to stick around and watch the Awoken’s sure defeat in this battle.

But it felt like someone else – something else, disagreed.

As if he were made of elastic, when he tried to return to the comfy familiar void of death, he was snatched back into the middle of the battle. But this time, he was closer to one of the Hive ships. He looked down upon it; saw the razor sharp edges even closer now, saw a balcony jutting out from the ships side. The main ship in this Hive fleet, the one Geoff unmistakeably spotted before.

He tried to leave again, closing his eyes and letting himself float back something that he _could_ understand. Again, he was pulled, this time so viciously he felt the metal of his Exo skeleton ache with it. And when he opened his eyes once the pain subsided, he was inside of the ship, watching the battle take place from just beyond the reach of the balcony.

And he felt _powerful_.

He gripped something in his hands, strong and weighted by the Darkness. It was the handle of a sword that stretched out and out below him, corroded and seething and dangerous.

What happened then was a blur of pain and anguish. The Darkness came to him as he raised his sword in the air, and he let it pool at his feet before injecting it throughout the Dreadnaught. He felt tainted waves roll across the massive fortress and reach out, barrelling towards the Awoken fleet and killing everything in its path.

The Queen watched from inside of her Ketch, and closed her eyes as the tidal wave neared.

Geoff opened his eyes and returned to the void. The power that had infected his body, the pain and the anger drained out of him so suddenly his head spun, and started to ring. As the ringing increased towards a deafening shrill noise, he started to wonder just what the hell all that was, what did he see? Why did he see it, and what did he feel so strongly and unwaveringly when he was inside of that ship?

His Exo skeleton ached to the point of numbness, the kind of dull pain that makes a person realise all they can do to combat it is wait. Close their eyes and ride it out until it recedes.

A voice echoed, all around him. Not his own, and not one he had heard before. It was low and deep and for a second Geoff thought that he was still inside of the tombship, holding the sword. Commanding the Darkness, he now realised. Sending it to kill the Awoken, to kill the Queen.

It said something to him. Not a whisper but a growl, and yet so calm Geoff felt no fear from it.

It spoke, and Geoff passed out.

 

* * *

 

Mercifully, Ray and Michael made it to the Tower before Ryan, Jack, and Gavin did. Jack was grateful for that.

The latter Guardians materialised on the balcony and Gavin began running straight ahead. Ryan bolted and grabbed his arm, Gavin whirling around and practically sneering at him.

“The Speaker, Gav, they’ll have gone to him, he’s the only-”

But Gavin was gone like a Fallen wire rifle shot, darting towards the north entrance of the Tower. Ryan and Jack quickly followed; passing a surprisingly large group of Guardians huddled around Eris Morn. A couple of them looked over their shoulders casually to watch all three of them run by.

Gavin vaulted over each flight of stairs, landing heavily between them and making Jack curse the agility of Hunters. Somehow, he and Ryan remained on the tail of Gavin’s cloak as it whipped against the Hunters body in protest.

Gavin took the staircase to the Speakers balcony two steps at a time, stopping to breathe momentarily right in front Geoff’s Ghost, resting in the Speakers hand.

As Jack and Ryan arrived, Michael and Ray both locked eyes with the Warlocks. Michael looked away, fidgeting. Ray held Jack’s gaze, his brown opticals dim and almost motionless.

Jack couldn’t think of anything to say, and was silently thankful he didn’t get the chance as Gavin launched into a slew of questions.

“Is he – he’s okay, right?”

“They’re weak,” the Speaker said, cradling Geoff’s Ghost in his hands. “Michael’s Ghost was able to stabilise both Guardian and Ghost, but the toll it’s taken on them… Is difficult to surmise. It _may_ have been enough to save them.”

“So how do we get him out?”

Gavin was eerily still as he asked, his wide yellow eyes practically pleading. Jack looked to Michael and Ray, slumping forward even in the presence of the Speaker. He caught Michael’s eye, but all the Titan did was thin his lips into a line and look away again.

“We must be patient,” the Speaker said, which wasn’t the answer Gavin wanted.

“You said they’re weak, Geoff’s only going to get worse if we don’t do anything, right?”

The Speakers own Ghost was inspecting the broken one carefully, not scanning it, but floating practically an inch away. Seeing it stare at the injured Ghost made something sink in Jack’s chest.

“Your teammates were explaining to me what happened. It sounds like he suffered directly at the hands of the Darkness, and considering the damage it’s inflicted on a Ghost, there’s not a lot that can be done for either of them.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ray asked, a hint of malice in his voice.

“His Light needs time,” the Speaker gave over the stationary Ghost to Gavin who took it very, very gently into his own hands.

“Wait, you want us to just sit around and wait for him to come back? That’s it?” Michael stood straight then, eyeing the Speaker as though he’d just condemned Geoff to death. “His Ghost is literally broken, and you want us to act like it’s just another revival?”

“However damaged his Ghost may be, your leaders Light is strong, Guardians. I have only confidence that he will return to you.”

It felt like a half-promise, and for a second Jack wondered if the Speaker was giving them false hope.

Gavin looked helplessly at the Speaker, who linked his fingers together and asked them to leave. Jack could feel the ripple of annoyance run through all five of them at once like a spark of electricity.

They walked slowly and stood outside of the Speakers chambers, a persistent wind whipping Ray and Gavin’s cloaks about and making Gavin cling to Geoff’s Ghost as much as he could without bringing it more harm. Executor Hideo spoke with an agent of the New Monarchy to their right, Eva Levante pressed away at her terminal, happily humming away in her alcove to the left.

“Motherfucker.”

“Michael-”

“Come the fuck on Jack, everyone’s thinking it.”

“You could at least say it, you know, more than _a few feet away from him_.”

“Oh, like I give a fuck,” Michael started pacing through the makeshift circle they’d subconsciously made, hands on his hips and reminding Jack far too much of Commander Zavala.

“So, how do we get him out?” the Titan asked the group. They all looked at him helplessly.

“Michael, what can we do?” Ryan said. “If the Speaker didn’t know how to help him then all we _can_ do is wait.”

Michael seemed to consider it, but quickly shook his head. “No. We have to take this into our own hands.”

“How?”

“I don’t – fuck – I don’t know! Ryan, you didn’t see what we did! The Speaker was right about one thing, the Darkness got Geoff and it got him hard.”

It was a testament to the conversation that Gavin didn’t even make a sound.

Ryan and Jack looked at Ray, whose eyes were dim and downtrodden. “He’s right,” the Exos voice was small, and he shrugged his shoulders in disbelief. “Geoff’s Ghost didn’t just keel over and stop working. The Darkness got to him, to his Ghost. I don’t think just waiting is going to cut it.”

“Well, if the Speaker doesn’t even know what to do, how are we supposed to figure it out?” Jack asked then, feeling the loss and hopelessness radiating off of his teammates. Normally he’d say something, tell them it was okay, that Geoff would be okay but he’d never lie. He’d never lied to his team and he wasn’t about to start. He didn’t know.

“We could go to Eris?” Ryan said. It was a feeble sound, a small suggestion laced with doubt. Michael’s eyes lit up.

“You think she’d be able to help?” Michael stopped himself in front of Ryan, towering over him and brimming so suddenly with the confidence they all lacked at that moment.

“I mean, I don’t – Maybe? She’s, um,” Ryan looked pained, fighting with himself for a moment. Jack laid a hand on his shoulder. Whatever he had to say, they needed to hear.

He seemed to understand, looking at Jack’s hand and continuing very quickly. “She was stripped of her Light down in the Hellmouth. I don’t think the Speaker wanted to admit it, although maybe he didn’t actually know, but that looks like what’s happened to Geoff,” Gavin clutched the Ghost tighter as they all glanced at its motionless form. “I don’t know if she can help Geoff but, she might at the very least understand what’s happened to him.”

“I’ll take that over waiting,” Ray piped up. Gavin looked up then and nodded. They all looked at Jack.

He nodded his head, and Michael was off, Gavin and Ray hot on his heels.

Ryan laughed under his breath, and Jack turned to face him, not realising how accusing his natural expression must be until Ryan looked ashamed.

“I just, huh. Never thought I’d see them running to Eris like that.”

Jack laughed softly, more so for Ryan’s benefit. There were a lot of reasons why the lads were running for Eris’s aid, none of them good. Jack didn’t exactly find it difficult to bite his tongue, if it meant Ryan felt better.

“I think we’re going to be seeing more changes like that soon,” he said instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been... So long since I updated this, and whilst I can’t (and never did) promise that updates will be regular, because of where im at in my life right now with moving out and starting university, all I can say is thank you for sticking around and being patient. I love you guys and I really hope this was worth the wait <3

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my tumblr - nerdy-kins.tumblr.com - for ah destiny au drabbles and other fake ah crew pieces that im still trying to decide whether or not I want to upload here. Stay tuned.


End file.
